All I Want Is You
by Bexsan
Summary: Olivia Dunham and Peter Bishop are finally together, but when tragedy strikes everything is shattered. Will they make it through together or will they fall along the way?
1. Angels

It was a quiet Saturday afternoon in the middle of March. The sun was shining brightly, making the small amount of snow that still remained on the ground sparkle like tiny diamonds. Brighton was beautiful this time of the year, in the early spring, when the cold winter weather started to disappear and the heat from the sun started to find its way through the thick grey clouds once again. One of her favorite things about living in Massachusetts was the early hours in the morning, when the sun was rising.

Olivia Dunham sat at her kitchen table in her apartment with a cup filled with steaming hot coffee in her hand. There were a few work files scattered on the table in front of her, which was not that unusual. Almost every night had been spent with a glass of whiskey in hand whilst looking through old case files. Sleeping more than a few hours every night had been something she had never been able to do. But he had changed that. When they had finally acknowledged their love for each other and begun a stable relationship everything just seemed to get better in an instant. There had been a few obstacles in the beginning, most of them caused by her inability to trust and confide in people, but other than that they were just like any other couple.

A small smile formed on her lips as she thought about him. About his perfect smile that made her melt, his soft brown hair that she loved to draw her fingers through and his absolutely perfect body. As she picked up her coffee and continued scanning the information in the files she heard the front door open followed by the familiar footsteps of her boyfriend entering. She looked up as he entered the kitchen in his old sweatpants and a grey sweater.

"Hi! How was your workout?" She said with a smile as he leaned down and kissed her.

"Sweaty." Peter said as he moved to stand behind her and wrapped his arms around her, putting his chin on her shoulder. "Would've been more fun if you'd been there though."

"Ugh. Get off!" She said as she pushed him away. "You're all sweaty and…ick."

"Oh, you don't like it?" He said with a smirk as pulled her back against his chest and nuzzled his head in the crook of her neck. Olivia laughed and tried to push him away once again but he continued teasing her. "See, you _do_ like it!"

"Nooo. Stop it!" Olivia said with a laugh. "_You_ need to go and shower and I need to get this done." She continued as she looked up at him.

He had a huge smile on his face. _His smile_. She could still remember the first time that she saw it. That day in Baghdad, three years ago, when she first met him and brought him back to Massachusetts against his own will. It felt like a lifetime ago. So many things had changed since then, both her work and her personal life. Olivia had brought him back so that she could get his father's help to save the man she loved at the time. But she ended up losing him anyhow. Then Broyles came along, trying to get her to begin to work for him at the FBI, which she had refused and told him that she was happy with her current job. _I just want to go back to before_, she'd told him after he had showed her a few files with cases linked to The Pattern. But at the end of the day she had joined Fringe Division anyway. For the last three years they have solved all the unexplainable cases they got and seen things that no one could possibly imagine exists. And although it was horrible, she loved it.

Their friendship had been strong. Even though neither of them wanted to admit at first, they had cared for one another from the beginning. When Peter decided to stay and work with her and Walter, it had not been only because she threatened him, but also because he saw that she needed it. He could read people._ I'm usually pretty good at reading people, that's sort of what I do_, he'd told her over their first coffee together. There had been something about her that made him feel like he had to stay and help her. He had never met anyone like her; there _was_ no one like her.

After she had come back from the other side and found out everything that happened while she was away, she did what her instincts told her to do; retreat. The time when she and Walter had traveled to the other universe to bring Peter back, and she confessed that she did had feelings for him by telling him that he belonged with her, was a great step for her. She had always kept people at an arm's length, staying in the background and trying to blend in to avoid getting hurt. She had been hurt both physically and mentally her entire childhood and that made her struggle with both commitment and trust issues. But she trusted Peter, and that made her realize that she wanted to be with him. Even after the things they had been through.

"Fine." He said as he massaged her shoulders gently whilst looking down at the files that lay on the table. "What are you working on anyway? I thought you had the day off?"

"I do…I just need to get this done." Olivia answered slowly.

"Need any help?" Peter asked as he grabbed her coffee.

"No, I don't think so." She replied with a smile. "Did you see Walter today?"

"Yeah, I stopped by the house on my way home." He said as he walked over and placed the cup in the dishwasher.

"Is he doing okay? I mean, with you staying here more…" She asked slowly as she turned slightly to look at him.

"Yeah, he seems fine." He answered with a shrug. "Astrid was gonna come over and play monopoly with him tonight. He's made an entire bowl of his homemade strawberry ice cream."

"That sounds like Walter." She said with a smile and turned back to her work.

"You hungry?" He asked as he walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of beer.

"No, not really." Olivia answered without looking up.

"Have you eaten anything since breakfast?" He asked with a frown. When he did not get an answer, he tried again. "Olivia?"

"What?" She said as she looked up. "No, I didn't."

"Olivia." He sighed as he put down his beer and sat down next to her. "I thought we we'd talked about the working and skipping meals thing."

"Peter…" She said slowly as she looked over at him.

"Olivia…" He said softly as he grabbed her hand and kissed it gently.

"I'm sorry, but I got caught up with this and then Rachel called. " She said with a smile. "But now that you mention it, I'm actually a bit hungry."

"Well, I'm just gonna take a shower and then we'll order pizza?" He smiled and leaned and kissed her softly.

"Yeah, that sounds good." Olivia answered with a smile.

"Wanna join me?" He asked as he stood up and gave her a playful smirk. "To help the environment, you know."

"The environment?" She asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah. If we shower together, we save hot water." He answered simply but she could see the mischief in his eyes.

"Well, I can't really say no to that, can I?" She said with a grin as she stood up and faced him.

"No, you can't." He whispered as he placed his hands on her sides and leaned down to kiss her softly before he took her hand and went upstairs.

_Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe - Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe _

"We're really bad for the environment." Olivia said with a grin as she stepped out of the steaming shower and wrapped a red fluffy towel around body. Her soaked blond hair was hanging down on her shoulders, dripping down on her chest. "I don't think we saved any water _at all_."

"No, probably not." He said as he wrapped his own towel around his waist, leaving his chest uncovered much to Olivia's happiness. "But it was worth it though."

"It was." She said with a smile as she went to their bedroom to get dressed. A few minutes later she came back into the bathroom where Peter was currently putting on a new pair of comfortable pants. He smiled as she walked in, clad in sweatpants and his MIT sweater.

"I see you've found my shirt." He said with a small grin as he moved to stand behind her. "I should've known."

"It's comfy." Olivia replied with a shrug as she grabbed her hairbrush. She met his in the mirror and smiled softly at him. They had been together for a few months now and everything as going well. Although they had not moved in together, Peter spent most nights at her apartment. And as much as she actually wanted him to live there, she knew that would not happen anytime soon with Walter in the picture. Everyone knew he was not quite capable of living alone.

"Yeah, that's kind of why_ I_ like to sleep in it." He answered as he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed the back of her neck before he met her gaze in the mirror once again.

"Well, you can't have it." She answered with a small yawn.

"Tired?" He said softly, resting his chin on her shoulder.

"A bit." She answered as she leaned back, letting him support most of her weight.

"What do you say about pizza and a movie on the couch?" Peter suggested and kissed her cheek.

"Yeah, I'd like that." She answered as she turned around in his arms and looked up at him. He smiled at her, his green eyes soft and filled with love. "_If_ you order the pizza."

"I can do that." He said with a grin as he let her go. "Hawaiian or Pepperoni?"

"Pepperoni." She replied as he went to the kitchen to make the call. Olivia turned off the lights in the bathroom and went to her bed to retrieve one of the fluffy blankets that lay there. One of the things she loved the most about having Peter with her at night, was to snuggle on the couch wrapped in a blanket together.

As she walked towards the couch she felt a sharp pain in her lower abdomen and she stopped to lean against the doorframe for a moment. She could hear Peter talking on the phone in the kitchen and for a moment she considered calling for him but the pain disappeared as fast as it came. She closed her eyes and pressed her hand against her abdomen as she exhaled slowly. Just as she was about to open her eyes she heard his footsteps.

"Pizza will be here in about–" he stopped abruptly. "Olivia?"

Olivia opened her eyes and saw Peter standing in the door opening between the kitchen and her living room. His eyes were filled with worry and confusion as he quickly dropped the phone and rushed to her side.

"Olivia, what's wrong?" He said firmly as he looked into her eyes.

"Nothing, my stomach just..." She said slowly as she felt the dull pain in her abdomen. "I think it's just cramps. I'm due for my period this week."

"Are you sure?" Peter said softly. "You usually don't even mention it."

"Peter I'm fine." She told him slowly. "I just got surprised, that's all."

"Okay, anything I can do to help?" He asked sympathetically.

"Actually there is." She answered with a small smile. "You can start the movie and then lay down on the couch with me."

"Oh, you wanna cuddle?" He teased as he smiled at her. "FBI agent Olivia Dunham wants to cuddle on the couch."

"What? You're telling me the con man doesn't?" She said with raised eyebrows and a playful smirk. "Let me guess. You're too insecure about your manhood for that."

"_Insecure about my manhood_?" He said and looked at her, his green eyes sparkling. "Do you remember who you're talking to here? I'm _more_ than confident about my manliness. You of all people should know that."

"I do know that." Olivia stated with a grin. "Still wanna watch a movie?"

"Yeah, of course." He replied as he leaned down and gave her a quick kiss. "I'm just gonna get a beer, then we can watch whatever you want. You want anything to drink?"

"No, I'm good." She said as she sat down on the couch. Peter nodded and walked to the kitchen. "When did you say the pizza was gonna be here?"

And at that moment the doorbell rang and the words 'Pizza Delivery' echoed through the door. Just as she was about to get up, Peter came back from the kitchen and opened the door. He gave the young delivery boy the money and a quick 'thanks' before he shut the door and handed her the pizza box.

"God this smells good." Olivia said as she opened the pizza box and grabbed a slice.

"Any movie preferences?" Peter asked as he sat down next to her and reached for the remote.

"Lord of the Rings?" Olivia suggested and leaned back against the couch with a slice of pizza in her hand.

"Oh, come on." Peter groaned as he turned his head to look at her. "We've seen that movie like 15 times this month."

"Please?" She said as she took a bite of her pizza.

"Fine, but I want to see the last one this time." He said and pressed the play button on the remote. "Happy?"

"Yes, thank you." Olivia answered as she finished her last piece of pizza.

"How are you feeling?" He asked as he leaned back and pulled her against him. "Any pain?"

"Just a little cramping." She mumbled. "I'm fine."

"I know you are." He said honestly as he placed one of his hands on her abdomen, providing warmth to ease the little pain she had. He hated seeing her pain more than anything. "Does that feel good?"

"Yeah, it helps a bit." She answered softly as she shifted to get comfortable. "Thank you."

A few hours later, Peter lay stretched on the bed with his arms around the half sleeping Olivia in his arms. She was practically lying on top of him, her head buried in the space where his neck met his shoulder and collarbone. One of her hands rested on his chest, just above his heart, and the other was gripping his hand. He could feel her warm breath on his skin every time she exhaled and he watched as she struggled to keep her eyes open. The movie was almost over, all Frodo had to do now was to throw the Ring in the fire, return to the Shire and sail away from his friends. Peter had always liked the three movies, but Olivia, she absolutely loved them. He couldn't even remember how many times they had watched them together during the couple of months.

The lights in the living room were dimmed, and it was almost completely dark with the exception of the TV and the light shining from the street and in through the window. When the movie had ended, Peter turned the TV off and pressed a gentle kiss to Olivia's temple to wake her up.

"Olivia, sweetheart?" He whispered as he squeezed her hand. "Come on, the movie is over, let's go to bed."

"M'sleepin." She answered, her voice muffled against his skin.

"Yeah, I noticed." He chuckled as he sat up, Olivia still leaning against his shoulder. "You missed the entire movie."

"No, I didn't!" Olivia protested as he helped her up. "Ask me a question about it and I'll tell you."

"You'd be able to do that anyway, since you've seen the movie more times than normal people have." He told her with a grin as he locked the door and walked to the bathroom.

"I'm not normal." She shrugged as she grabbed her toothbrush. "I'm a freak."

"Hey, stop that." Peter said firmly as he grabbed her wrist gently. "You know that's not true Olivia."

"I'm a test subject." She said nonchalantly.

"No, you _were_ a test subject, and only because of _them._" He said firmly as he looked into her eyes. "And you're not a freak, Olivia. Don't think like that."

Olivia looked deeply into his eyes, those beautiful green eyes that told her everything he felt, anger - happiness - sadness - desire, she had seen them all. She had seen him get angry a few times, most of them at Walter. He had gotten irritated and a bit mad at her a few times, but never had she seen him get absolutely furious, or cry for that matter. After her car accident his eyes had been red and puffy, indicating that he had been crying, but she had never seen him actually cry. He had seen her a few times though.

Ever since she was a kid, she'd had this emotional wall around her that blocked everyone out and all of her emotions in. The people at her boarding school had called her _Han_, which had actually fit with her personality. She had always been on her own and tried to do everything without anyone's help. But now, with Peter, she allowed herself to be herself and open up to him. She had told him things that nobody else knew and also about how she really felt about things, something she had never been able to do with anyone else. Over the past three years, he had been there through the ups and downs. He offered her protection, a lot of love and affection.

"I know. I know." She admitted as she dropped her gaze to the porcelain sink, avoiding eye contact with him.

"And I love you for who you are, Olivia." He said softly as he put his hand under her chin and made her look up at him. "Don't ever doubt that."

"I don't." She reassured him as she kissed him. "And I love you too."

"I know you do. I mean, who doesn't?" He said with a smirk as he got under the covers on her bed.

"You, Peter Bishop, are definitely something else." Olivia said with a grin as she got under the covers next to him and kissed him softly.

"I love you, Olivia." He mumbled between kisses as he brought one of his hands to her waist.

"You are absolutely adorable, but this is not gonna happen tonight." She said in a whisper and smiled against his lips. "I'm feeling good, but not _that _good."

"Do you have to call me adorable when I'm trying to seduce you?" He said as he rested his head on the pillow and looked down at her with a small grin.

"Yeah, I do." She answered with a yawn. "Because you _are_ adorable."

"Well, thank you sleepyhead." He whispered as he pressed a gentle kiss to her temple. "Sleep, Olivia."

"Mhmm." She mumbled as she closed her eyes. "G'night."

"G'night." He whispered softly and closed his eyes, letting the darkness take him in.

_Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe - Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe _

Olivia woke up early in the morning. It was still pitch black outside her bedroom window. One of Peter's arms was wrapped loosely around her torso, his legs tangled with hers and she could feel his warm breath on her neck. As she shifted to look at the time on her alarm clock, she winced. She was in pain. Her stomach was cramping, worse than before. Worse than she had ever felt. She bit her lip as she tried to get out of the bed. With a faint moan, she managed to stand up and stagger to the bathroom, her hand pressed against her abdomen. As she turned on the lights and looked down, she saw the red blood that had soaked through her sweatpants.

"Shit." She said as she slowly peeled of her blood stained clothing and dropped them on the tile floor. Olivia quietly flipped on the water in the shower and stepped inside the shower cabin. She knew that Peter would most likely not wake up, since he was a pretty deep sleeper. As she looked down, she watched the pink tinged water go down the drain. It was more pink than red. But it was definitely blood. A steady drip, not a high amount, but definitely more than she liked. She wobbled backwards as she began to feel weak.

"Peter!" She shouted loudly as she began to panic. She did not know if he had heard her or not, but just as she was about to call for him again, she heard movement from outside the door.

Peter awoke to the sound of the shower running and the fact that Olivia was not by his side. He blinked a few times and brought his hand to his face to rub the sleep from his eyes. He glanced at the alarm clock and frowned when he saw the time. It was still several hours until they had to get up. Olivia had no reason to be taking a shower now. Something was wrong.

"Peter!" He heard the panic in her voice and he threw the covers off and rushed to the bathroom.

As he entered the bathroom, he felt his heart stop for a moment. The first thing he saw was the bloody clothes on the tile floor, but the thing that made his insides churn was her. His Olivia was leaning against the shower wall, her face was pale and she looked terrified. Peter watched the blood trickle down her leg. He was frozen on the spot, not moving, not breathing, but when she was about to sit down on the shower floor he snapped out of his trance.

"Olivia!" he said as he rushed forward and wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her from falling. "Olivia, what happened?"

"I– I don't know. But it's not stopping." She said as tears of pain mixed with fear slid down her cheeks.

"Okay. Okay." He said nervously as he helped her out of the shower and grabbed a towel. "We're gonna go to the hospital, okay?"

"Okay." She said as she swallowed hard and tried to blink away the tears. But they just kept coming.

"Hey, hey, it's gonna be alright." He said as he helped her put on a new pair of pants and one of his shirts. "You're gonna be alright 'Livia."

"Peter, what's happening?" Olivia cried, even though she knew he did not have any answer to give her.

"I don't know sweetheart. But we're going to go to the hospital and you're going to be fine." He tried to reassure her as they walked out of her apartment and towards her car.

"I love you, Peter." Olivia said weakly as she grabbed his hand. Peter clenched his jaw and squeezed her hand firmly to keep himself from panicking as he drove quickly down the road towards the hospital.

"I love you too, honey."

**AN: Hello everybody! My name is Rebecca, I'm from Sweden and this is my first story for Fringe (:**

**I absolutely LOVE Fringe and the people in it.  
>I don't own Fringe or any of the characters in it. <strong>  
><strong>English is not my first language so there will probably be mistakes.<br>******  
>BTW if anyone discovers the secret song lyrics in the text, tell me ;)<strong>**

**Anyway, if you like the story and want me to continue, please let me know! (: **


	2. Hospital stay

Peter had never felt like this before.

It had been twenty minutes since he helped Olivia through the door in the ER. As soon as they entered, he had shouted for help and within seconds they had been surrounded by doctors and nurses. A few nurses and one of the doctors, an old man with dark hair and dark blue scrubs, had taken Olivia to one of the trauma rooms as a young intern had asked Peter for information. The young blond haired woman had asked for their names and what had happened.

"_Excuse me, sir." The young intern said as she stopped him from following the doctors into the trauma room. "Can you tell me what happened to your…?" _

"_Girlfriend. She's my girlfriend." Peter said quickly. _

"_I know this is difficult but I need you to tell me what happened." The intern said slowly. _

"_I don't know what happened, she just started bleeding and I just-." Peter said as his voice cracked slightly. _

"_Is your girlfriend allergic to any medications?" She asked as she wrote down what he said on a small notebook. _

"_No, not that I know of." He said as he tried to remember if she had ever mentioned being allergic to anything. "Can I be with her?" _

"_I'm sorry, but you're going to have to stay in the waiting room until we've figured out what's going on." The blond woman said and gave him a sympathetic smile before she walked away, leaving him standing in the middle of the ER with tears glistening in his eyes. Reluctantly he walked to the waiting room and sat down. All he could do now was wait and see. _

Another twenty minutes had passed the next time Peter looked up at the clock. He sat in one of the chairs in the half empty waiting room at Boston General. There was still no one who had updated him on Olivia's condition. He did not even know where she was. He did not anything if she was okay.

He watched as a doctor went up to a middle aged couple who had sat in the waiting room since he arrived. The woman had been crying constantly for the entire time. Her husband had held her hand and tried to comfort her while trying not to break down himself. Peter had been watching the people in the waiting room as a distraction. He had tried to figure out who they were here for. There was an old woman in the corner, probably here for her husband. The middle aged couple, husband and wife judging by the matching wedding bands on their fingers, were here for their child. Peter had seen them holding a picture with a young boy in it.

As he watched the doctor as he talked to the couple and as their facial expressions went from worried to relieved, tears formed in his eyes. Their son was fine. The young boy was going to be okay. Peter just hoped Olivia would too. He looked up when the dark haired doctor from the ER entered the waiting room. Peter swallowed hard and rubbed his eyes before he stood up and walked over to him, his heart pounding so hard against his chest that he thought it would explode.

"Mr. Bishop?" The doctor asked as Peter approached him.

"Yeah." He answered slowly. "How is she?"

"She is going to be fine." The doctor assured him as Peter followed him down the hallway, but his face told another story. "But we have a few things to discuss."

"Just tell me what's wrong with her." Peter said desperately.

"Ms. Dunham suffered an incomplete miscarriage." He explained slowly. "We've given her a transfusion because of the amount of blood she's lost due to the miscarriage. So far I don't know what caused this to happen but we're running the tests to find out as we speak."

"She was pregnant?" Peter whispered as he clenched his jaw to keep himself from crying.

"Oh. I apologize, you didn't know?" The doctor asked sympathetically.

"No. No we didn't" Peter said slowly. "She doesn't…hasn't had any symptoms?"

"It's not uncommon for women not to show any signs of pregnancy during the first trimester." He explained; like it would help him understand why this horrible thing had happened to the woman he loved. It didn't. "My guess is that she was only a few weeks along."

"Does she know?" Peter asked as he cleared his throat and wiped his eyes.

"No, we had to sedate her. But she should wake up in a few minutes." The doctor told him as they stopped outside one of the many rooms in the hallway.

"Can I tell her?" Peter asked, needing to know if he could. Although it would not really matter what the old doctor said.

"Of course." The doctor nodded. "I know this is difficult, but just try to make sure that she tries to stay calm."

"That's not gonna be easy." Peter muttered as the doctor grabbed his pager which was currently beeping loudly. "She'll try and get out of here as soon as she wakes up."

"She will probably be able to go home tomorrow unless there are any complications from the D&C she had. Excuse me, but I need to go." He said before he walked away, leaving Peter alone outside Olivia's hospital room.

_Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe - Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe _

Olivia was tired. Her body felt like concrete, and yet so light. The pain in her abdomen was gone. But her body was aching, like she had been sleeping for more than a week. She was in a bed. A hospital bed, she suspected, as she heard something beeping quietly somewhere near her head. _But why?_ She could remember the blood on the shower floor, the quick drive to the hospital and Peter's beautiful green eyes that had been filled with so much worry and fear as she had been taken into another room. She remembered the small needle they inserted under her skin, to drain blood or put in an IV, she was not entirely sure. But after that, everything was gone.

As she slowly opened her eyes her suspicions was confirmed. She was definitely in a hospital bed. The constant beeping sound came from the heart monitor that stood on the left side of her bed. This was all so familiar. She remembered the time she had woken up in the same hospital, after she had crossed over from the other universe. Peter had been at her bedside when she had turned around. He had taken her hand in his and kissed her forehead gently. As she turned her head slightly, blinked again, her eyelids heavy as she adjusted to the lights coming from the hallway, she saw him.

Peter was slumped in a chair with his head resting on his arms that lay on her bed, one of his hands holding hers tightly even though he was asleep. The position did not look comfortable at all, neither for his back or neck. As she looked at his sleeping face, she could see the tearstains on his cheeks and the puffiness around his eyes, indicating that he had cried himself to sleep not too long ago. She slowly and weakly squeezed his hand to wake him up. She needed to know what was wrong. As soon as she even moved her hand, he stirred and looked up at her concerned.

"Olivia?" He whispered slowly, one of his hands going to her cheek as he searched her eyes for any indications of pain.

"Hey." She croaked out, her voice slightly hoarse. "What happened?"

"You're in the hospital." Peter whispered as he traced her cheekbone with his thumb. "Do you remember what happened?"

"I…the blood in the shower…and the drive here, I don't…" She said slowly as she closed her eyes tried to think back.

"Hey, hey it's okay." He shushed her quietly. "Take it easy, sweetheart."

"Peter, what happened?" She said as she stared into his green orbs, usually filled with love and joy, but now all she could see was sadness.

"Olivia. You should rest." He said as he dropped his gaze and avoided her eyes.

"No. No, Peter what's wrong with me?" Olivia said as she tried to sit up. The monitors began to beep slightly faster as her heart rate increased. "Peter, please."

"Hey, hey calm down." He said as he placed on of his hands on her shoulder and gently pushed her back against the pillows again, as his left hand went to her cheek. "Calm down Olivia."

As Peter looked into her questioning eyes, he knew. Olivia, his usually tough and fearless girlfriend, was terrified. He could see it so clearly in her eyes. He knew she was strong, but this would break her. And it crushed him, knowing that he had to be the one to tell her that their child was dead. Their child, that they had not even known existed, was dead.

"You were pregnant, sweetheart…" He said slowly and swallowed as his eyes filled with fresh tears.

"What? No..." Olivia said with a frown as she looked down.

"Olivia." He tried again and tilted her head up so that he could look into her eyes.

"I wasn't…I couldn't have...No. No." She said as she shook her head, tears falling down her cheeks. "Peter, it's not true. It's not true!"

"I'm so sorry." He said as he sat down on next to her on the bed and pulled her against his chest as she cried. The machines were beeping loudly as she cried harder.

"Peter." She cried as she grasped the front of his shirt and buried her head against his chest. "Peter, I can't…I-"

"I know. I know. I'm here. I'm not going anywhere." He soothed as he held her shaking form against his body. "Ssh, I'm right here."

Peter did not know how much time that had passed as they sat there, when Olivia finally stopped crying, not because she stopped being sad, there was simply no tears left to cry. Her eyes were bloodshot and her pale cheeks swollen from the salty tears that had rolled down them. When she looked up at him, he felt his own heart clench, almost as if someone stabbed him in the chest. He had never seen this much pain and sorrow in her eyes. She looked so small and fragile, like she would shatter into a million pieces at any moment. It broke his heart to see her like this. He wished that he was able to take away all her pain. But there was nothing he could do. She was broken. They were broken.

Just as he was about to speak, his phone vibrated on the small table next to the bed. Olivia flinched at the sound, but stayed in her position against his chest. Slowly, he reached for the phone without letting go of Olivia. Peter sighed as he saw the ID on the caller. The number was from his own house, which meant that it was either Astrid or Walter that had called. And from the fact that he had five missed calls from them, suggested that it was probably Walter who had called. Although he really did not want to call him back, he knew that he had to.

"It's Walter. I have to call him back." Peter said softly, his voice slightly hoarse.

"Okay." Olivia whispered so quietly, he almost didn't hear it.

"I'll be right outside, okay?" He said as he stood up and pressed a kiss on her forehead, just like the time after her accident. But this time it was so different, so different.

Olivia nodded slowly as she lay back against the soft pillow on the bed. Peter reluctantly let go of her hand and walked out the door into the hallway. He inhaled deeply and rubbed his face before he hit 'dial' on his phone. This was going to be hard.

"_Peter?"_ His father's voice exclaimed as soon as he answered.

"Yeah Walter, it's me." He replied with a sigh.

"_Why haven't you been answering your phone, son?" _Walter asked_. "I've been worried."_

"I'm sorry Walter, but I'm at Boston General." He said as he closed his eyes.

"_Why Peter, are you injured?" _Walter asked worriedly. Peter could hear Astrid in the background as she talked to Walter.

"No, I'm fine." Peter said and swallowed. "It's Olivia."

"_Astro and I will be the soon, son." _Walter said and hung up the phone before Peter even had a chance to protest.

"Damn it." Peter cursed as he looked down at his phone. He did not want them to come here now. It was too much. He knew that Walter would not take this well at all, neither would Astrid, but his father cared for Olivia deeply. Peter still remembered the time when his father had examined Olivia when she had been pronounced brain dead after her car accident a year ago. Walter had been so devastated that he had not wanted admit that she was gone whilst Peter had drowned his sorrows in alcohol along with Broyles.

"Mr. Bishop?" Someone said from behind him and when he looked up he was met with the face of the doctor that had talked to him earlier.

"Yeah, sorry." Peter replied.

"Did something happen?" The doctor asked him, referring to the phone and the defeated look on his face. He actually seemed genuinely considerate.

"Just my father." Peter answered with a small sigh, not wanting to discuss any further. "What's up?"

"Well, I just wanted to let you know that Olivia's test results came back inconclusive." He said as he handed him a piece of paper. "We still don't know what caused her to miscarry."

"And what does that mean?" Peter asked slowly. He hoped that they were not planning on taking more tests on Olivia just because they came back inconclusive. Sure, he wanted to know why this had happened but he also knew that all Olivia wanted was to be left alone.

"I'd like to keep her overnight for observation just to be on the safe side." He answered. "Is she awake?"

"Yeah, she woke up about an hour ago." Peter admitted with a small nod. "And she knows."

"Okay." He said sympathetically as he grabbed the handle on the door, but before he opened it he turned to Peter. "I need to make a quick exam to see that everything is OK. It can be very difficult to handle so I suggest that you're in here with her."

"Of course." Peter said slowly as they entered. Olivia was still awake, but as she turned her head and spotted the doctor at Peter's side, she frowned and tried to sit up.

"Hi Olivia, my name is Harry Spoon." He said as he stopped at her bedside. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." Olivia said quietly.

"Well, that's good." Harry answered, not believing her at all but decided to let it go. "I'm just going to do a quick exam to make sure everything is okay."

"What?" Olivia exclaimed as she looked up. "No, it's okay. I'm fine. I just wanna go home."

"I'm sorry but you need to stay overnight, just as a precaution." Harry answered calmly.

"No, no, no Peter I can't. I want go to go." Olivia pleaded as she tried to take all the wires off her body.

"Olivia." Peter sighed as he grabbed her hands and made her look at him. "Stop that sweetheart. I know that you hate this, but you can't leave yet, okay?"

"I don't want to be here anymore." She said as new fresh tears made their way down her cheeks. "Please Peter, I want to go home. Please."

"I know you do." He said softly as he wiped her tears away. In the corner of his eye, he saw the doctor prepare a few instruments and a small syringe.

"Olivia, we have to make sure you're okay." Peter tried to convince her, but she was getting more upset by the minute. Olivia was crying, shaking her head furiously as she struggled against Peter's firm grip.

"We're going to need to sedate her." Harry said as he grabbed the small syringe he had prepared a minute ago.

All Peter could do was watch as the doctor inserted the needle into her arm and Olivia stopped fighting him. He stroked her cheek softly as her eyes fluttered closed. As the doctor was about to start his exam, Peter left the room. He couldn't do it. He could not sit there and watch. It was too painful, even for him.

When he came out into the hallway, he immediately spotted Walter and Astrid by the nurses' desk. Astrid was talking to one of the nurses, probably trying to find out where he and Olivia was, whilst Walter stood in the middle of the room, just watching everything around him. The nurses ran from room to room, doctors wrote in their charts and regular people came to visit their beloved ones.

"Peter!" Walter shouted as he spotted his son further down. He instantly began to walk towards him as Peter took a few steps in his direction. Astrid followed behind him and soon they were all standing outside Olivia's room.

"They told me what happened." Astrid said as she embraced him. "I'm so sorry Peter."

"Thank you Astrid." He replied softly.

"Is agent Dunham okay, son?" Walter asked worriedly.

"Yeah. She's asleep, the doctors sedated her." Peter answered with a small nod to the room she was in.

"Do they know what caused it?" Astrid asked carefully.

"No. All the tests came back inconclusive." He admitted.

"I knew there was a possibility for this to happen." Walter muttered from behind them.

"What?" Peter asked confusedly as he turned to look at his father.

"The Cortexiphan." Walter said.

"What about the Cortexiphan?" Peter asked, although he already suspected he knew the answer.

"I suspect that the Cortexiphan in her bloodstream somehow made her body reject the fetus." Walter explained slowly.

"What did you just say?" Peter said, his voice low and threatening.

"I am so sorry son." Walter replied.

"How am I going to tell her that the Cortexiphan in her body killed our baby?" Peter said loudly as he stared at his father, anger evident in his eyes. "She's been through enough of problems with this drug! She already thinks she's not good enough, that she's an outsider because of the experiments _you_ did to her!"

"Peter." Walter said slowly.

"Just leave Walter." Peter said as he turned around and went back towards Olivia's room. "Just go."

_Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe - Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe_

"Olivia?" Peter's soft filled her ears as she woke up again, still at the hospital much to her dismay. She felt his thumb stroke her knuckles gently as he held her hand. His breath was hot against her cheek.

"There you go." He whispered when she managed to open her eyes to look at him. "Hey."

"Hi." She answered as he leaned in and gave her a soft kiss.

"How do you feel?" He asked as he sat back in his chair.

"I've been better." She replied coldly as she removed her hand from his and turned her head away to gaze at the window.

"Olivia." He said with a sigh. "Please don't do this."

"What? Did you expect that I'd forgotten?" Olivia snapped as she looked back at him. "You let them _drug_ me!"

"And you don't know how sorry I am for that." Peter replied honestly. "But you needed that exam Olivia, you know that."

"Well, what did you expect me to do?" She said dryly. "Just lay still and pretend that nothing ever happened? Pretend that I'm fine?"

"I don't expect you to be fine." Peter said softly as he wiped away a lonely tear that slid down her cheek. "I know you're not."

"I just want to go home." She admitted slowly.

"I know you do. And we'll go home tomorrow, I promise." He told her as she closed her eyes.

"Did you call Walter?" She asked a few minutes later, surprising him slightly since he thought she had fallen to sleep again.

"Yeah." He said shortly, not wanting to tell her about their discussion yet. "I thought you were asleep?"

"I tried." She admitted as she shifted her weight onto her other side.

"Maybe you should try and eat something?" Peter suggested lamely. "It's been a few hours."

"I can't eat. I'm too nauseous." Olivia told him seriously.

"Nauseous?" Peter asked with a frown as he placed his hand on her forehead and then two fingers against her neck.

"Peter, what are you doing?" She asked confusedly as she tried to remove his hands.

"I think you have a fever." He said with a concerned face as he pressed his lips against her forehead to confirm his suspicion. "Definitely warmer than usual. Still nauseous?"

"Mhmm." Olivia mumbled as she closed her eyes and pressed her head against his sternum. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

"Come here." Peter said as helped her to the small bathroom in her room. He rubbed smooth circles on her back as she threw up the contents of her stomach.

Olivia felt the tears fill her eyes as she closed the lid on the toilet and rested her head on her arms. The nausea was not as bad as before, but her body felt weak and her head was spinning. She slowly opened her eyes when she felt his hand leave her back and the water from the sink started. Peter crouched down next to her again and handed her a small plastic cup of water that she gratefully accepted. The water was cold and helped against the awful taste of acid that had formed in her mouth from retching.

"Can you help me back to bed?" She said with a cough, her throat somewhat sore. Peter did not answer; he just picked her up and carried her back towards the bed.

"Peter!" She exclaimed, surprised by his actions.

"What?" He asked nonchalantly. "Didn't think I could carry you?"

"You've done it before." Olivia said, referring to the nights when she had fallen asleep on the couch, but also all the times he had supported her weight during sex.

"I'm going to ask your doctor to come check on you." Peter said as he gave her a kiss before he left the room.

Olivia leaned back against the pillows as Peter disappeared out the door to go and find her doctor. She knew he was worried about her and that he wanted her to open up and talk to him. It had been almost 12 hours since she had been brought in, and they had not said a word about what had happened. When he had told her with tears in his eyes that she had been pregnant, she'd felt as if she had been suffocating. She couldn't breathe, her chest tightened and everything hurt. And when she had seen the pain and sadness in his eyes, the tears had come.

"I hear someone has a fever." The doctor, Harry, stated as he walked in to her room with Peter right behind him.

"According to him, I am." Olivia answered as she glanced at Peter who now stood at her side, arms crossed over his chest.

"Well, he's actually right." Harry confirmed as he checked the vitals on her monitor. "You do have a slight fever, but nothing serious."

"But why?" Peter asked with a frown.

"Are you allergic to any medications?" He asked Olivia, ignoring Peter's question at the moment.

"Not that I know of." Olivia replied as she tried to think about her previous hospital stays. "My mother was allergic to some antibiotic but I don't know."

"That may be it." Harry nodded. "We won't know until we get your blood work back. But I'm going to take you off the antibiotic now anyway, and hopefully you'll feel better in a few hours."

"Thank you." Olivia said slowly. "When can I go home?"

"Unless there are any complications you can leave the first thing in the morning." He answered with a comforting smile.

"Would it be better if she stayed longer?" Peter asked, making Olivia snap her head around to look at him, shock and confusion on her face.

"I can't really answer that question. It depends on how she feels." Harry replied slowly, a little surprised by Peter's question.

"Okay." He replied simply. Harry removed her IV filled with antibiotic before he left the room to attend to his other patients.

"Why did you ask that?" Olivia immediately asked as soon as the doctor ad walked out the door.

"I just wanted to know what was best for you." Peter replied as he sat down next to her.

"You won't force me to stay here, right?" She whispered as she looked up at him.

"No, of course not." He reassured her.

"Good." She said quietly. "Cause I really need you."

"I need you too." He said slowly. "I know that you don't want to talk about this yet, and I'm not going to pressure you. But don't keep it all in, please talk to me if you need to, because sometimes you can't make it on your own Olivia."

"Can you hold me?" She asked as she closed her eyes and leaned against him. He didn't answer; he just wrapped his arms around her and pulled the thin cover over them. Olivia fell asleep almost instantly as he gently stroked her blond soft hair.

Her forehead was a bit cooler than before, so he suspected that her fever was gone. Apparently she was allergic to antibiotics. Her body had already taken so much pain today that he was sure she would die if anything more happened. That was the reason he had asked if it was best for her stay at the hospital a few more nights. He was afraid to take her home, afraid that something would happen if he brought her home and away from the hospital where all the talented doctors were. He knew a lot about a lot of things, but his medical skills were pretty limited.

As he lay beside her on the small hospital bed and stroked her hair gently, it was hard to keep the tears away. Even though they had not said a single word about what had happened, he knew she was broken. He could read her like a book, and although she would not admit it, she knew he could. He could see it in her face. Even in her sleep, her face looked like she was in pain. Twelve hours ago they had lain on the couch together, arms wrapped around each other under the blanket, almost like a cocoon. They had kissed and she had laughed at his lame jokes about the mistakes he found in the movie. It was his thing; he liked to find mistakes in the movies he watched and point them out. He had done it since he was a kid. In just a few hours Olivia had gone from looking happy and healthy to looking almost dead. She looked like she had done during the first months after they had met, dark circles under her eyes and pale skin, like she was extremely exhausted. He knew that he probably did not look much better himself at the moment.

A soft knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts. He looked down at Olivia but she was still asleep, her cheek pressed against his chest. When the door opened he was surprised to see Walter standing in the doorway. He looked slightly nervous and sad. Peter clenched his jaw and looked away for a few seconds before he slowly untangled himself from Olivia's sleeping form and stood up. Walter stepped outside and Peter followed, quietly closing the door behind him so that he wouldn't wake her up.

"I was just down in the gift shop with Astro and I found this amazing box of delicious chocolate." Walter told him as he handed him a small white box with gold letters on it. "I suspected that agent Dunham wouldn't eat the food…But chocolate is not food. Belly and I actually proved that…"

"Thank you Walter." Peter said sincerely, his anger against his father fading away. He knew that Walter had not meant for any of this to happen and he meant well, even though he did not know how to act.

"Do you think agent Dunham wants the chocolate now?" Walter asked eagerly.

"No Walter. She's sleeping." Peter told him with a sigh.

"Oh." Walter answered sympathetically. "How is she?"

"She's…acting like Olivia." Peter said slowly. "It's hard on her, but she won't really admit it. But I can see it in her eyes."

"And how are you, son?" Walter asked him, and Peter could see the compassion in his eyes.

"It's unbearable." Peter said as he swallowed hard.

"I'm so sorry, son." Walter said as he stepped forward and hugged him. Peter was surprised for a second, but then he hugged him back. As he let go and took a step back, he spotted Astrid coming their way. Peter rubbed his eyes to rid himself of the tears that had escaped his eyes.

"Hey." He said as he cleared his throat and gave her a sad smile. "I thought you left hours ago?"

"No, I've been with Walter at the gift shop and I called Broyles to let I'm know that you'd be off duty for at least a week." Astrid told him with a nod. "And don't worry, I didn't tell him what happened. I'll let you guys decide whether or not you want that."

"Thank you." Peter answered sincerely. Astrid was always there for them. She watched Walter when he couldn't and she never complained about it. Sure, it was part of her job to help them, but she did more than she had to. He couldn't remember how many times she had come over and played monopoly with him since he started to spend his nights at Olivia's place.

"Has the doctor told you when she'll be allowed to be discharged?" Astrid asked as she glanced at the closed door behind Peter.

"Probably tomorrow." Peter said with a nod. "I'm going to stay here tonight. Do you think you can give him a ride home?"

"Of course, I'll stay in your guest room as well, if that's okay?" Astrid asked. She knew that Peter wouldn't want Walter to be alone, but he would never leave Olivia alone in the hospital.

"I owe you one." Peter replied as he glanced at Walter who was standing in front of the window between the hallway and Olivia's room.

"Hey Walter." He said firmly. His father turned around and took a few steps in their direction. "Astrid's gonna take you home. I'm going to stay here with Olivia."

"Okay." Walter said quietly as he turned around and went towards the exit, leaving Peter and Astrid behind.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Astrid said with a comforting smile as she turned around and followed his father.

Peter watched them walk away and he wished that he could go with them instead. He would never leave Olivia here alone, but he wished that none of this had happened and that everything could be normal again. But nothing was normal anymore. And it probably wouldn't be for a long time either. With a sigh, he walked back into Olivia's room. She was still curled up on the bed, sleeping soundly. Instead of taking the risk to slide in under the covers beside her, he pulled the chair he'd used earlier as close to her bedside as possible and sat down.

_Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe - Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe_

The next time Olivia woke up, she felt slightly better, at least physically. Her body did not feel as weak as before. The nausea and dizziness were gone as well. She could hear it raining outside as the water drops hit the window. The room was darker than it had been before she fell asleep, but Peter was still there. He sat in the same chair as before, his head resting on his arms as he slept soundly. She slowly shifted her body so that she lay on her side, and then gently stroked the side of his head. The skin on his cheek and behind his ear was smooth and soft, unlike the stubble he usually had. He had shaved right before they went to bed, before any of this had even happened. She gently ran her hand through his soft brown hair, over and over. He did not wake up, but he shifted slightly. His eyelids were not as red and puffy as before, and his body looked more relaxed than before she had fallen asleep.

As Olivia leaned back against the pillow, her back aching from the uncomfortable bed, she brought a hand to her hair. It felt awful. Greasy and tousled were good words to describe it. Her skin felt clammy. She knew there was a shower in the small bathroom in her room. She had seen it when she had been sitting on the floor after she had thrown up. It was not big, but it was a shower. Even though she was allowed to go home in a few hours, she wanted to take a shower. She slowly removed her hand from his, pulled down the covers as far as she could and carefully sat up. Her body was still not completely normal, but at least she could move on her own. But standing up was a completely different matter. As soon as she tried to stand up, she fell back into a sitting position. She body was still too weak to be able to hold her weight up, let alone walk to the bathroom.

"Olivia?" Peter's sleepy voice came from behind her. "What are you doing?"

"I was just going to the bathroom." She said as she started at the floor in front of her, too tired to turn around and look at him. "But I sort of can't get any further than this."

"Why didn't you wake me?" Peter said softly as he came around the bed and kneeled in front of her.

"You need to sleep too, Peter." She answered as she looked into his eyes.

"Maybe I do." Peter said as he offered her a hand and helped her stand up. "But you're more important to me right now. You'll always be."

"You promise?" She asked, needing to hear it.

"Yes, I promise." He assured her as he gave her a kiss before leading her to the bathroom. "You okay by yourself?"

"Yeah. I think so." She said as she opened the toilet lid.

"I'll be right outside." He told her and closed the door.

Olivia slowly sat down on the toilet. Going to the toilet was not something she needed help with. And if she had, she knew he would have helped no matter what. Removing her clothes and get in the shower was going to be impossible without his help. She slowly stood up and flushed the toilet before opening the door. Peter was right outside, just as he had promised.

"Back to bed?" He asked as he leaned against the doorframe.

"No." She said as she bit her lip, and she could see the confusion in his eyes. "I want a shower."

"Okay." Peter said as he nodded slowly.

"And I can't really do it on my own." She admitted. Peter stared at her for a few seconds, thinking, before he answered her.

"Well, who am I to say no to a shower in a hospital with my girlfriend?" He said with a small smile as he stepped inside and closed the bathroom door behind him.

"You can't." She said as she tried to reach the knot on the back of her hospital gown.

"Here, let me help you with that." Peter offered as he turned her around and quickly untied it and let it fall to the floor, leaving Olivia in just her bra and underwear. He leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to her shoulder as he helped her take of the rest of her clothes before quickly removing his own.

"No funny business in the shower." Olivia said firmly, but her tone was playful.

Peter just grinned at her as he helped her inside the shower cabin and started the water. Together they stood under the hot water. He helped her to wash her hair and body, using the flower scented shampoo and body wash that he'd found on the floor inside the shower. There was nothing sexual about it, just two broken lovers comforting each other. But they would be okay. Maybe not a while, but eventually everything would be okay.

**AN: **

**First of all I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone that reviewed the first chapter, you made me incredibly happy! :D**  
><strong>And congratulations to AMY, who guessed the right song. ( Angels by Robbie Williams.)<strong>

**I know there are a few mistakes in this chapter, mainly the time and medical stuff..But I'm too tired to change that now so...**

**There are secret lyrics in this chapter as well and I hope you enjoy it. (:**

**MERRY CHRISTMAS too everyone btw, since i probably won't update before that (:**

**XX**


	3. Two Weeks Is A Long Time

"Get the hell out of my house!"

Peter stood in the living room in Olivia's apartment. His jaw was tightly shut, his teeth pressed together so hard that he thought they would break any second. His whole body was tense and his hands were balled up into fists against the sides of his thighs as he tried to keep calm. Tried not to yell anymore. He did not want yell anymore, but he needed her to stop. But he also knew that she had a right to make him leave, hell she even had the right to kill him for what he had said.

"No. We're not doing this again." He said loudly as he stared at her, his eyes filled with anger and frustration. He took a step towards her, as an attempt to make her listen to him.

"Get out!" Olivia yelled as she shoved him back. He knew she was strong, but the force of her shove surprised him. Her face was a picture of disbelief and rage. His body was tense, but Olivia's was rigid. Her usually bright green eyes were darker. She breathed heavily but her breaths were shaky, her chest rising quickly with every breath. "Just leave! We're done!"

"Fine." Peter said through gritted his teeth as turned around and slammed the door behind him as he left her apartment.

As soon as the door had slammed shut, the tears started to flow down her cheeks in abundance. Her knees buckled and she fell down on her knees, sobbing. Every single emotion was apparent. She had been feeling so many feelings, thought so many things and she knew that she should have talked to him, but she couldn't. It was much easier to just stay quiet. But all that led to was them screaming at each other, saying things that they did not mean and hurting each other psychologically. Eventually they could not take it anymore; one of them had to leave.

_Two weeks ago._

_Monday night._

_Olivia had been discharged from the hospital on Monday morning. The doctor, Harry, had told her that she was allowed to leave as long as she had someone with her. Even though she was okay, her body was recovering from a major trauma and therefore he had told her that she needed to rest as much as she could for the following three days. And she had. _

_As soon as Peter had helped her get inside of front door, after their painfully silent drive from the hospital, she had gone to bed. He had given her the bottle with sleeping pills that Harry had given them at the hospital and a glass of water. His lips had been warm and soft as he pressed them against her forehead gently before he left her bedroom and went to her living room. Olivia had laid there with her eyes closed and listened to the quiet sounds of the TV. She knew he was crying out there, and all she wanted was to walk to the couch, lie down next to him and wrap her arms tightly around his body. She wanted to comfort him the way he had. She wanted to make him feel better. But she just could not do it. So she had laid there under the covers in her bed, all alone, and just listened to the sound of the TV. _

_Four days later._

_Friday night._

"_Olivia?" Peter whispered as he sat down on the bed next to her sleeping form. _

_All Olivia had done for the last four days was sleep or lay on the couch, watching whatever was on TV. She didn't have the energy to do anything nor did she feel like it. Peter had been with her the whole time, except for a few hours every day when he left to check on Walter. But Olivia knew that was not the only place he went to. There were a lot of bars between Walter's house and her apartment, and Peter went to one of them. He probably knew that she knew, since he never tried to hide the smell of whiskey that radiated from him when he came home and lay down next to her. He slept on the other side of the bed. And it killed her not to be able to ask him not to. She wanted everything to be like normal, but nothing was. They were different._

"_Olivia." He said once again as he stroked her shoulder to wake her up. _

"_Go'way." Olivia mumbled, her voice muffled from the pillow as she pressed her face further down into the bed. _

"_No, Olivia." Peter said with a sigh. "You can't keep doing this anymore."_

"_I'm fine, just let me sleep." She answered slowly. _

"_No. No more sleeping and no more 'I'm fine'." Peter said firmly as he grabbed her shoulder and rolled her over._

"_What?" She said as she stared up at him. _

"_I know it's easier to stay here, but you can't." He said softly as he made her sit up. _

"_What am I going to do then? I'm not allowed to work or OVERWORK." Olivia said with a defeated look. _

"_We can watch a movie or go out for dinner." Peter tried as he rubbed her arm gently. _

"_Peter, I can't leave yet." She said slowly. _

"_Then we'll order Chinese and stay here." He said simply. "But you're getting out of this bed." _

"_Fine." She said as she threw the covers off her body and went to the bathroom. _

_As the door closed behind her, Olivia closed her eyes and leaned her back against the door. Even though she knew that he was trying to help her, all she wanted to do was yell at him. Her hormones were still on overdrive, pumping through her bloodstream and out to every single cell in her body. Controlling her temper was harder than usual. And she took it out on the person that was there for her the most._

_Olivia leaned over the sink as she looked at herself in the mirror. She looked horrible. Even though all she had done for the last few days was sleep, there were still dark circles under her eyes, her usually blond soft hair was worn and disheveled. She slowly put her hair up and washed her face. _

_Peter sat on the edge of their bed and waited for Olivia to come out of the bathroom. He could hear the water running from the sink as he sighed and put his head in his hands. He was worried about her. During the last few days, they had barely said a word to each other. When he was home all Olivia did was watch TV or read, and he did the same. But when Olivia went to sleep early in the afternoon, he went to check on Walter for a while. He hated himself for feeling this way, but the visit to his father was the highlight of his day. Everything else just escaped his mind for an hour or so, and it felt good. But as soon as he walked out the door again, he was back in their nightmare. And the guilt was so hard. He felt bad for leaving her alone. He felt bad for not being there. Sure he was there, but not really _there_. _

_It was always the same bar. It was just a few blocks from Olivia's apartment, since he was not able to drive after a few drinks. The bartender recognized him as soon as he walked through the door and when he sat down on the barstool, there was already a glass of whiskey in front of him. He barely remembered how many shots he usually drank, but they were enough to numb the pain and suppress the guilt. It worked. But then he had to go home, and everything came rushing back to him as he stumbled in through the doors. He never dared to wrap his arms around her when he went to bed. He desperately wanted to hug her close to his body and hold her the whole night, but he just couldn't. _

_Peter heard the water stop, and a few seconds later the door slowly opened but he didn't look up. He heard Olivia's light footsteps as she came out, but she stopped right next to him and then he felt her soft hand stroke the side of his head. Her touch was gentle, almost hesitant, as she slowly ran her fingers through his hair. _

"_Are you okay?" She whispered as she stroked his temple with her thumb. _

"_No, not really." He answered and looked up at her. _

"_Me neither." She admitted as she sat down on the bed next to him and rested her head against his shoulder. Peter wrapped on arm around her waist, resting his left hand just above her hip bone whilst his other hand held hers tightly. They sat there for a few minutes, not speaking but still saying so much. "We'll be okay, right?"_

"_We'll get through this, together." Peter told her. "It's gonna be hard, but we'll make it."_

Olivia only cried harder as she thought back to that Friday night. That night had been good. It had been the first good moment they'd had since the hospital. They had actually talked, not about the miscarriage much to Peter's dismay, but about other things. For the first time in days, they had talked about things that weren't the weather or which food they wanted. And it had felt so good to be back in his arms again. But that was a week ago. Since then, everything had changed. It had gone from bad to worse in a second.

Everything had been somewhat okay for the first week. But the longer they had avoided talking to each other about how they were really doing, the worse it became. Peter wanted Olivia to open up and talk to him about the miscarriage, but she had refused to even talk about it. As soon as he tried to bring it up, she snapped at him and told him that she was 'fine'. He knew that it was hard for her to talk about things, she had always been like that and it was just who she was, but he thought that she could at least talk to him. All he wanted was for Olivia to be able to talk to him, no matter how difficult it was, he wanted her to dare to tell him everything. But Olivia did what she always did, retreated. And that's when the fights started.

_Tuesday night._

_It was almost midnight, the rain was pouring down and the wind was cold. Peter slowly walked up the stairs outside Olivia's apartment after having spent the last few hours in a crowded bar a few blocks away. He'd had a bit more to drink than usual, but he could handle his liquor pretty well. All those times in Iraq, drinking Red Russian like it was water. Olivia was right, it was worse than awful, but he had gotten used to it. He had gotten used to a lot of things while he was there, some of them he wished he hadn't. _

_Peter unlocked the door to Olivia's place with the key he had gotten from her a few months ago. The heavy door squeaked as he opened it and stepped inside. He threw his jacket on the couch and removed his shoes, almost falling down as he tried to balance on one foot. Clearly not something you ought to do when you're slightly drunk, he thought. He tried to be as quiet as possible so that he would not wake Olivia up as he walked towards their kitchen to grab a glass of water to prevent the massive hangover in the morning. But when he entered the kitchen, he found her sitting at the table, files scattered around her and a glass of whiskey in hand. This was what he had come home to for the past three days and he did not like it. He didn't like it at all. _

"_What are you doing up?" He asked as he grabbed a glass from the cabinet. _

"_I could ask you the same question." She answered shortly without looking up at him. _

"_I was with Walter." He said, although he knew that she didn't believe him. _

"_Sure you were." She said sarcastically. _

_Peter clenched his jaw to try and stay calm, trying not to make it a bigger deal than it actually was. But it was hard, especially with the high amount of alcohol in his system. Alcohol made him say that he regretted, words that he knew hurt her even more than if he had physically hurt her. He loved her more than anything. But that did not make things easier. They still fought every day. They had already had more fights during the last two days than they'd had for months. _

"_Should you really be drinking right now?" He said firmly as he leaned against the countertop. _

"_I'm off the pills if that's what you're asking." Olivia told him coldly, still not looking at him. "And why shouldn't I be allowed to drink? You sure as hell drink more than enough for both of us." _

"_At least I have a reason for it." He heard the words leave his mouth before he could stop them. _

"_And I don't?" She said as she finally looked up at him with. "You think you're the only one feeling bad?"_

"_I don't know, am I?" He said loudly as he stared at her. "How am I supposed to know how you feel when you don't tell me? I've tried talking, tried to make you leave the house, hell I even tried to leave you alone! But NOTHING seems to make you happy!" _

"_Happy? You want me to feel _happy_?" Olivia said loudly as she glared at him._

"_I want you to feel something!" Peter said as he threw his hands up in frustration. _

"_You don't think I feel anything?" Olivia said as she stood up and placed her glass in the dishwasher. Peter watched as she placed her hands on the countertop and leaned. When she turned around again, her eyes were glistening with tears and it made his heart break. _

"_You don't think I feel the pain like you do? That I don't feel like I want to go to the closest bar and drink until I can't even remember my name?" Olivia said as she looked into his eyes. _

"_Olivia." He said, his voice filled with guilt and regret. _

"_I feel like I'm dying. I'm too tired to even leave the house, I can't eat without throwing up… I can't even look at you." Olivia told him as the tears ran down her cheeks. "I can't look at you because I see the pain in your eyes. And it's killing me because I know I'm responsible for it."_

"_What?" He said, shocked that she would even think like that. But this was Olivia after all, and she always felt responsible. _

"_No Olivia, you _cannot_ think like that. You are not responsible for what happened. None of this was your fault." He continued as he took a step forward and pulled her against his body in a tight hug. _

"_Of course it's my fault!" She cried as she grasped the front of his shirt. "I'm the one with the Cortexiphan in my blood. I'm the one who did this."_

"_Olivia, stop." Peter said firmly as he put his hand under her chin and made her look at him. "It wasn't your fault, okay?" _

_Olivia never answered. She just hugged him back as she cried for a few minutes, then she let him go and went to bed without a single word. His head was already beginning to pound from the alcohol and the fighting had not helped with that. He was relieved that Olivia had finally talked to him, even though the things she had said were heart breaking to hear. Peter had suspected that she was blaming herself for what had happened, but now he knew for sure. It was just like her. _

_He slowly walked over to the couch and sat down. As he leaned back against the couch, he heard the sound of the bedside lamp next to Olivia's bed snap and the light from the bedroom was gone. Peter closed his eyes and just breathed. Was it getting better, or did he feel the same? Would it make it easier if he had someone to blame? Although Olivia had told him about how she felt, it had not changed much; they were still not the same. She had let him comfort her, but it had only been for a few minutes. Then she had got herself together and left him alone there in the kitchen. Peter desperately wanted them to be okay. He wanted to be able to believe himself when he thought that they would get through it together. He was sure that they would both get through it eventually, but it was the together part that he doubted. _

_Sunday afternoon. _

_Peter had not kissed her in over a week. He had not said a word to her in two days. He had not been at her place since the night before. And she could not really blame him for not being there, she had told him to leave after all. Olivia worked as much as she could at home since she still wasn't allowed to come back to work. During the night she slept and during the day she organized and went through her old files. It was her way of getting by, and it worked. She was feeling better, like everything would be okay after all, at least she knew that she would be okay. Their relationship however, was falling apart faster than a snowman in the sun. _

_Olivia grabbed her jacket and just as she was about to grab her car keys, she heard someone unlock the door. And she did not need to look up to see who it was, she already knew. Peter was the only one who had a key to her place except for herself. Her bright green eyes met his as soon as he entered and the door closed behind him. He looked tired, his hair was slightly tousled as if he had not slept. But he looked completely sober, something she had missed very much. _

"_Are you going somewhere?" Peter asked slowly. _

"_Yeah I was just…" Olivia trailed of as she realized she had no idea where she had planned on going. "…Going out." _

"_The FBI?" He said dryly. "Yeah, I suspected that."_

"_What?" Olivia said confusedly as she looked at him. "I'm not-" _

"_Fine, we'll do this your way." He said, avoiding her eyes. _

"_Do what?" She asked. _

"_Exactly!" He said loudly as he finally met her eyes again. "Do what? We don't do anything Olivia! That's the point!" _

"_Well that's kind of hard when you're not even here!" She answered coldly. _

"_Because you told me to leave!" He said loudly. "It doesn't matter what I do, you always find a reason not to trust me Olivia!"_

"_What do you expect me to do? Go with you and visit Walter and play monopoly?" Olivia yelled at him. "I lost a baby Peter!" _

"_Well so did I!" He shouted angrily as he looked at her. "But you don't even care about that! You don't even care about the fact that _I'm hurting too_!"_

"_Of course I care!" She shouted as her eyes filled with tears. _

"_No, you don't! All you care about is your damn job!" Peter yelled loudly. "Work always comes first, right? Did you even want this baby?" _

_The words had just left his mouth when he felt Olivia's hand connect with his cheek. The force of her slap made him turn his head sideways as he brought a hand to his now sore cheek. He knew that what he had said was the worst thing he'd ever said to her, the worst thing he had ever done to her. When he looked back at her, stared into her eyes all he could see was anger and pain, pain that he knew he had caused. It literally killed him to see it, and it was even worse knowing that he was responsible. _

"_Get the hell out of my house!" _

_And that was it. He left her, angry at himself for screwing this up. But not everything could be fixed, everything was not meant to be. So he left. _

**AN: I know I said no chapter before Christmas, but since I got so nice reviews :')**

**I know it's not really a good chapter, just a long flashback but I thought it would be better to do like this instead of short flashbacks in every chapter later on ;) **

**Secret lyrics of course, and they're from one of my favourite songs by U2 (: **

**__All i want for Christmas is reviews ;)**


	4. First Day Back At Work

The blaring sound of her alarm clock woke Olivia up from her deep sleep. It took her a few seconds to realize what it was, since she had not heard it in over two weeks. It was five in the morning, the room was still dark and the other side of her bed was cold. Olivia rolled over in her bed and stared at the empty pillow beside her. Usually when she turned around in the morning, she would come face to face with a sleeping Peter. But Peter was not there, and he probably never would be again. They had not spoken a word since their fight, or break up, she was not entirely sure what it was yet.

Olivia sighed and grabbed her phone as she slowly sat up in her bed. There were no missing calls from Broyles, or anyone else for that matter. Today was her first day back at work since the incident three weeks ago. She couldn't remember the last time she had taken this much time off work at once, not even after she had returned from the other side. Although she had been over there for almost two months, living her alternate's life without knowing who she was herself, she had only taken a week off work. Broyles had been slightly surprised when he'd found her inside his office one morning. She could still remember his expression when he walked through the door and spotted her. _Guess you weren't expecting me back so soon_, she'd said. Olivia smiled sadly at the memory before she went to take a shower and get ready for work.

The short drive to the federal building was as quiet as usual, since there was barely any traffic this early in the morning, at least not where she drove. Rush hour traffic usually started around seven, which was one of the reasons why she always left her house at six in the morning. Except for the times when Peter had spent the night with her. Since he was definitely not a morning person, they had usually slept an hour longer and left an hour later in the middle of rush hour. Peter always tried to make her put on the siren to avoid being stuck in traffic, but she knew he just liked to drive with the siren on. _Everybody should get to do this at least once before they die_, he'd told her the first time she had let him use it.

As Olivia walked through the familiar corridors inside the federal building, badge and gun placed in her holster at her waist, she felt good. It felt good to be back. But at the same time it felt odd. The pain of losing her baby was still there. The last time she had been in this building, she had been a few weeks pregnant without even knowing it. She walked through the busy floor where everyone sat with their computers, knowing that they were all looking at her. Broyles had told her that no one needed to know what had really happened, so as far as everyone else knew she had been away with the Fringe Division. She opened the door to her office and slowly walked inside, away from the burning gazes from her colleagues and the panic that made her heart rate speed up. Her office looked exactly the same. The whiteboard in the corner still had notes from the last case she had worked on written on it. The small table with the two chairs and her TV had been cleaned, but other than that everything was the same. But the thing that caught her eye was the small frame on her desk. It was a picture of her and Peter in the lab, both of them smiling at each other. They had not even noticed that Walter had taken the picture until a few days later when Peter had found it.

"_Walter, what's this?" Peter asked as he picked up the small picture. _

"_It is a picture of you and Olivia, son." Walter said casually, like it was completely normal. _

"_Yeah, I see that." Peter said as he rolled his eyes. "But why do you have it framed? And when did you take this?"_

"_Oh! Did you know that the man across the street owns a camera store in Boston?" Walter asked excitedly before he went to the kitchen, leaving Peter in the hallway with the picture and a smile on his face. _

"Agent Dunham."

The voice brought Olivia back from her thoughts and when she looked up she was not surprised to find Broyles standing in the doorway. He was dressed in his usual outfit, suit and tie that matched.

"Hi." She said as she gestured for him to come in.

"You ready for a case?" He asked as he held up a familiar looking file.

"Of course." She answered with a small smile.

"There was a body found in a wrecked car in the woods a few hours ago. You're the agent assigned." He told her as he handed her the file.

"This seems like a normal car accident." Olivia pointed out as she scanned the papers quickly. "It's not Fringe related?"

"No. But a regular case will be a good way to come back." Broyles said.

"I can still do my job." Olivia told him firmly as she looked at him.

"I don't doubt that, agent Dunham." He said slowly. "But you went through a terrible trauma and shouldn't even be back here for another week. Either you work this case or no case at all."

"I understand." Olivia said defeated, knowing that he would not change his mind.

"Dunham." He said as he stopped on his way out of her office. "It's good to have you back."

"Thank you." She answered with a small smile as she watched him leave.

After a quick drive through the city, Olivia parked her car behind another police car. As she got out of her car, she could see the red car lying in the ditch beside the road. There were already a few policemen at the scene along with the coroner. A young man, probably a patrol officer, turned around as she came closer.

"Hi, are you the FBI agent they sent?" He asked nicely.

"Yeah. Olivia Dunham." She replied with a nod as she showed him her badge to confirm it. "What do we have?"

"A woman passing by spotted the car and called 911." He told her as she watched the coroner put the man in a body bag with the help of another policeman. "We traced the car back to an Alexander Emerson, 48, lives in Lexington with a wife and two kids. We've already called and asked her to come down to the station."

"OK, thank you." Olivia told him as she walked towards the wrecked car to take a look at it.

_Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe - Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe _

"What do mean he woke up?" Olivia asked, shocked by what Broyles had just told her.

"The coroner was just about to start doing the autopsy when Emerson awoke on the table." Broyles explained as he closed the door to his office, not wanting anyone to know about what had happened since the case now belonged to Fringe Division and not everyone was allowed to know the things that they worked with.

"Did he say anything?" Olivia asked. "About the accident?"

"Unfortunately no." Broyles answered with a sigh. "He became unconscious almost instantly after he awoke. I've already contacted agent Farnsworth and she's on her way in. I want you to bring the body to the lab and follow this case through."

"The Harvard lab?" Olivia asked slowly, even though she already knew the answer. There was only one lab that worked with Fringe cases, except for Massive Dynamics, and that was Walter's lab at Harvard.

"Yes, the case now belongs to Fringe Division." He told her firmly. "But you're still the agent on the case."

"OK." Olivia answered just as the door to the office opened and Astrid walked in. "Hi."

"Hi, you're back!" Astrid exclaimed with a smile.

"Yeah, I'm just going to the lab." Olivia told her as Broyles gave her a nod before leaving the room. "You need a ride?"

"Yeah, sure." Astrid replied happily.

Olivia grabbed her coat and the case files before they left the office and went towards the elevator. This was not what she wanted right now. She did not want to go to Walter's lab and work with a Fringe case, because that meant she had to face Peter. It meant that she had to be in the same room as him, work with him, which was last on the list of things she wanted at the moment. And Walter would be there as well. She knew he would talk about her and Peter, he always did. It did not matter if Peter had told him about the last few weeks; Walter would just try and make them forget. Maybe he would even drug them to make them forget. The thoughts running through her head was silly, but at the same time you could never know with Walter.

"Olivia?" Astrid's voice brought her back from her thoughts. "Olivia?"

"Oh, sorry, what?" Olivia said as they stepped off the elevator that had stopped a while ago.

"Are you okay?" Astrid asked softly as they walked to Olivia's car.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Olivia said without thought. "Did you call them?"

"Yes." Astrid answered, not pushing further on the 'I'm fine' thing. "Peter said they'll meet us at the lab."

"Good." Olivia answered shortly as they got in the car and drove off towards Walter's lab.

_Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe - Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe _

"Walter, let's go!" Peter shouted loudly as he stood in the hallway, waiting for his father to come down the stairs.

"Why are you so inpatient, son?" Walter asked when he finally came down, already wearing his jacket, much to Peter's surprise.

"Well, the man who was pronounced dead at the scene and then awoke on the autopsy table is probably not to keen on waiting just because you can't find the right socks to wear." Peter said sarcastically as they went out the door.

"Or you just want to meet Olivia." Walter said with a smile.

"Walter." He said with a sigh as they got in car and started the drive towards the lab.

"I know you two had a fight, but that is not a reason to end a perfect and beautiful relationship." Walter told him.

"There was not only _one_ fight, Walter." Peter explained slowly as he turned onto a smaller street that led to the Harvard building. "I've told you the whole story, so please don't try and force things today, especially with Olivia."

Peter sighed as he spotted Olivia's black SUV already parked outside the lab. He heard Walter mutter something about the body being at the lab before him, but Peter did not listen. He did not care about the case at the moment; all he could think about was Olivia. The last few days had been hard. After having spent almost every night during the last few months sleeping in the same bed as her for, it was surprisingly hard to sleep alone in his small bed at Walter's house. He missed sleeping with his arms wrapped tightly around her small frame. He missed just lying next to her and watch whilst she slept. He missed _her_.

But he was just as hurt as she was. It had been their child, not only hers. He knew that she felt responsible for the miscarriage because of the Cortexiphan, and he understood why, but that did not mean that he agreed with her. He did not blame her at all. Olivia was hurt, which meant she let her instincts take over. He knew the drill; when she was scared or hurt emotionally, she did not let anyone get close to her. And even though Peter was as mad at her as she was at him, he was still worried about her. He was worried about her stability at this point and about how she was still dealing with the pain alone. Olivia had refused to call her sister and let her know what had happened despite the fact that Peter had tried to tell her that maybe it would be good to talk to Rachel.

"Do you think Aster is with agent Dunham today?" Walter asked as they walked through the hallway leading to the lab. "I want her to taste the strawberry cheesecake I made. It's a new recipe."

"_Astrid_ is usually here when Olivia is, so yeah she'll probably be there." Peter said, not interested in his father's midnight baking habits at all.

"Excellent!" Walter said happily ash he opened the door and quickly walked inside the lab. Peter sighed and followed him in.

Olivia closed her eyes as she heard the door open and Walter's voice filled the room. She and Astrid had arrived about ten minutes ago and helped the paramedics get the body inside the lab. Alexander Emerson had not woken up yet, much to their relief. Even though they were experienced agents and knew how to deal with dangerous situations involving suspects and shootouts, they had no idea what to do with a man who had been dead for hours and then woke up. No one knew how to deal with something like that, except for Walter maybe. As she opened her eyes a few seconds later, her eyes locked with his green ones. They could see the guilt and pain in each other's eyes, but also the anger. Olivia quickly broke their eye contact and went over to Walter who was now examining the body.

"This is very fascinating." Walter said. "I've never seen a zombie before."

"A zombie?" Astrid said with raised eye brows.

"According to the myth, when someone dies and then awakes again, that person becomes a zombie." Walter explained simply, like it was the most natural thing in the world. "Although the myth also tells us that zombie's eat human flesh, particularly brain matter."

"Walter, are you saying this man is a zombie?" Astrid asked with a sigh.

"No." He answered as he grabbed the victim's arm. "The man was simply paralyzed."

"Paralyzed from what?" Peter asked as he came to stand next to his father.

"I'm not sure yet, but I suspect from some sort of venomous spider." He replied as he showed them a small mark in the victim's wrist. "Look at this small puncture bite on his arm."

"That's definitely a spider bite." Astrid confirmed with a nod. "I got bitten by my friend's tarantula once. Bad memory."

"Good thing tarantulas are not poisonous." Peter pointed out.

"What kind of spider could have done this?" Olivia asked, referring to the paralysis as well as the small puncture wounds on his wrist.

"Numerous, although none of them can be found this far north out." Walter explained as he thought of possible reasons. "Is the man some sort of arachnologist?"

"No, he was the head of a company that manufactures copy machines." Olivia told him slowly. "Which means this was probably not an accident at all, right?"

"I believe you're right agent Dunham." Walter said with a nod.

"Olivia." Astrid said as she glanced up from the computer she now sat at. "There is an arachnologist living a few miles outside of the city. Maybe he can tell you what kind of spider that could have done this?"

"Send his address to my phone and I'll go talk to him." Olivia said as she started to walk towards the exit, but something made her stop and close her eyes.

"I'll go with you." Peter's voice made her stop for a second, but soon they were in the car and on their way out of the city.

They had been driving for about 20 minutes and not a single word had been spoken. It was dead silent; all that could be heard was the dull sounds from the engine and the wind outside the car. They were acting like kids. Neither of them wanted to swallow their pride and they were both too stubborn to make the first move, almost as two teenagers preparing for their first kiss. Tradition usually said that the guy was the one to make the first move, but that was different for everyone. She had been the first one to admit her feelings about him. Even though she had been trying to make him come back to their side, her love confession had been nothing but real.

"Why did you come with me?" She asked after another twenty minutes of silence.

"Because I needed to get away from Walter for a while, and I wanted to make sure that you were alright." He answered dryly as he glanced at her and saw the confusion written all over her face.

"Just because I'm mad doesn't mean I don't care." He continued slowly as he stared out through the car window.

"I know that." She said quietly as she turned onto a small road leading into the woods.

"Oh, do you now?" He asked wryly as he looked at her briefly before turning back to the window.

Just as Olivia was about to continue, she spotted a small house a few hundred meters in front of them. The closer they got the more it looked like an abandoned old cabin instead of a house. It reminded her of the small house that Simon, another child from Bell's Cortexiphan trials, had lived in when they went to see him. She hoped he had taken her advice and tried to talk to that woman he had told her about. But this place was definitely a bit creepier than Simon's cabin. As she got out of her car, Olivia spotted several empty terrariums stacked on top of each other outside the front door. From the look on Peter's face, he had seen them too.

"Well this seems like a nice place." He said sarcastically as they walked up to the door and knocked.

"Let's just see if he knows anything, then we're out of here." She said as the door opened. "Hi, I'm Olivia Dunham from the FBI. This is Peter Bishop and we'd like to ask you a few questions."

"They are all legal. I have permission to have them." The man said quickly as he looked at them. The man was slightly shorter than Peter, had dark hair and was dressed in sweatpants and a dirty shirt. To Peter, he truly looked like someone who would collect spiders and scorpions for a living.

"Excuse me?" Olivia said confusedly.

"My animals are all legal." He told them firmly. "I have legal document and permission to have them in the country."

"Well, we're not here about that." Olivia said slowly as she glanced at Peter who looked fairly amused by the man. "We were actually wondering if you could help us identify a bite mark that we suspect to be from a venomous spider."

"Oh! That changes things entirely." He said excitedly as he motioned for them to come inside. "I'm Archer. Archer Evans, but since you're FBI I suspect that you already know my name. You probably know more about me than I do myself."

"We're not really here about you, just your knowledge about small hairy insects with eight legs." Peter told him as they stepped inside.

"Actually, spiders and scorpions are _not_ insects." Archer said as he walked further inside the dark house. "They are arachnids."

"How long have you been doing this?" Olivia asked as she looked at all the terrariums that filled almost every room. There was just enough room to walk around through the house. It reminded her of the bug girl that she had met at the other side, the one who had been just as obsessed with Charlie as she had been with the bugs.

"Ten years in October." He said proudly as he opened one of the terrariums and stuck his hand in. "Why?"

"Just reminds me of someone." Olivia said simply as she watched him take out a large hairy spider.

"This one here is one of the main reason I collect them. Just look at it." Archer told them as he held the spider in front of them. Olivia watched with fascination as it walked across his palm whilst Peter just stood beside her, clearly not interested. But when the man tried to put the spider in Olivia's hand, he quickly stopped him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Peter said slowly as he took a step forward.

"Don't worry." The man said as he stepped back, clearly a bit intimidated by Peter's warning. "_Theraphosa blondi_ or Goliath bird-eater as it's called is completely harmless to humans even though it's considered to be the second largest spider in the world."

"Impressive." Peter said sarcastically as he took out the picture that Walter had given them. "Do you have any idea what kind of spider that could have done this?"

"Ah…Latrodectus regina." The man said slowly as he looked closely at the picture of Emerson's bite mark.

"The Medusa spider?" Olivia asked suddenly, making both of them turn around and look at her. Peter looked completely confused whilst Archer had a huge smile on his face.

"Only people that know a lot about arachnids know about the Medusa spider." He said as he placed the spider back in its glass box and turned back to them. "But you're quite right. It's definitely from a female Medusa spider."

"Okay I'm lost here." Peter told them.

"The Medusa spider is a very dangerous spider located at New Guinea and a few other islands around it. If you had a female Medusa in a jar on an island and then opened it, every male on the entire island would be drawn to her in seconds since the female's pheromones are so powerful." He explained to them.

"So what will happen to our victim?" Peter asked with a frown.

"The venom only paralyses the victim for about eight hours and then he will probably sleep for another 48 hours." He told them simply. "The problem is often that the person is presumed dead since the venom makes it impossible to feel a pulse. Your victim should be fine in a few days."

"Well, I think that's all we needed." Peter replied as they thanked Archer for his help and left the house, both of them secretly happy to be out of there. Just as they reached the car Olivia felt the first drops of rain start to drop down on her face and by the time they were out on the road it was already pouring down.

"Who did he remind you of?" Peter asked as he looked over at her.

"What?" She said, keeping her eyes on the road.

"When he told you how long he had been doing this, you said that he reminded you of someone." Peter said. "So who was it?"

"Oh, it was just this bug girl who had a huge crush on Charlie. Over there." She told him as a tiny smile formed on her lips. "I only met her once when he was there to get his spiders checked out."

"Spiders?" Peter asked with raised eyebrows.

"Long story." She said him slowly.

"Is that the reason you seem to know so much about them?" He asked, referring to Archer's earlier quote; _only people that know a lot about arachnids know about the Medusa spider. _

"No." Olivia said with a small grin. "Animal Planet and a photographic memory did that."

"Seriously?" Peter asked as he looked at her, clearly somewhat impressed by what she said. "I thought you only remembered numbers?"

"No, I can remember almost everything." She answered slowly. "Numbers are just easier."

"You have a freakishly good memory." He said, using her own words from when they sat on the swing set down in Jacksonville. Olivia didn't answer him, a part of her was surprised that he actually remembered what she had told him that day since all she wanted to do was forget that day completely. For some reason she couldn't remember anything about her time there or the experiments that she had been through, not that she wanted to remember anyway.

When they got back to Boston Olivia dropped Peter off at the lab and went back to the federal building to let Broyles know what they had found out. He told her that he would make sure that the man was transported from Walter's lab to the hospital for observation. Apparently he had woken up once again in the lab and mumbled something about boats and water. Since he was going to be fine in a few days, all Olivia had to do now to close the case was to find out how he had managed to get bitten by a spider that only could be found on the islands outside Australia.

_Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe - Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe _

The next morning Olivia had arrived to work early and just as she had walked through the doors she had met Broyles. Apparently Alexander Emerson had woken up during the night and told them about his _real_ work. He was involved with a group who imported illegal venomous insects and bugs down at the harbor. Broyles had told her to go with the team of agents down to the harbor and bring in the rest of the people that were involved.

When they had stormed through the doors in the warehouse they had found hundreds of boxes and terrariums filled with all kinds of imported animals. Several men and a few women had been arrested and brought back to the FBI for questioning. Even though her first case had turned out to be Fringe related and not a regular car accident, she had handled it just as well anyway. Broyles had been more than satisfied with her work. And so had she. She was finally getting back to being her normal self again.

Now it was almost midnight and Olivia was home in her apartment. She was just about to go to bed when there was a knock on the door, and she was surprised to see Peter stand there when she opened it. For a few seconds all they did was stare at each other.

"Hi. Did I wake you?" He asked slowly as he glanced down at her Northwestern shirt and sweatpants.

"No it's fine." She answered as she stepped back, letting him come inside the door. "Why are you here?"

"I don't know…I just…" He said slowly as he ran a hand through his hair, something he usually did when he was upset or frustrated. "I know I shouldn't be here but I… I wanted to make sure that you were really okay and I-'"

"I'm not." She said slowly as she looked at him.

"What?" He asked with a frown.

"I'm not okay." She told him honestly. "But I _am_ getting better."

"Good…that's good." He said slowly. "Olivia I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too." She said quietly as she avoided meeting his eyes, afraid that she would break if she did. The tears were already burning in the corners of her eyes.

"I wish that I could take it all back and that nothing of this ever happened." He said his voice thick with regret. "But it did happen."

"Yeah." Olivia whispered as she tried to wipe away the tears that blurred her vision without Peter noticing, but of course he did. He always noticed when she was upset.

"Olivia." Peter said softly as he brought his hand to her cheek and pulled her against his body in a soft hug."Please don't cry."

"I'm sorry that I can't do this." She said, her voice muffled by his usual thick pea coat.

"Don't be." He whispered as he pressed a soft kiss to her hair. "We tried."

To Olivia it felt like hours, but after a few minutes they pulled back from their embrace, tears evident in their eyes. Peter stroked her cheek as leaned forward and kissed her softly which only brought more tears to her eyes. But she kissed him back anyway. When they broke apart, Olivia rested her forehead against his for a moment before pulling back entirely. Peter gave her a sad smile before he opened the door and left her alone in her apartment. It was painful to watch him leave, and even more painful to know that they were officially over.

**AN: Sorry for the long wait, I've been busy over xmas and new year ;) **

**I know I'm horrible for splitting them up but that's how this story is going to be for a while. **  
><strong>They'll try and make it without being together in a relationship, but hey we all no that the belong together, right? ;)<strong>

**Btw the Medusa spider is a fictional spider from LOST, I'm no expert on spiders so.. x)**

**Let me know what you think :)**


	5. Humans Hybrids and Lincoln Lee

_I AM SO TERRIBLY SORRY for not updating this fic for this long! _  
><em>I've had a lot to do in school which unfortunately has to come first...<em>

_Anyway this chapter pretty much follows episode 4x01 but don't worry, Peter still exists and Walter is.. well he's Walter :)_

* * *

><p>Olivia parked her car outside the alley in the industrial area just outside Hartford. There was already a few other cars at the scene, including a white ambulance and a black van that belonged to the FBI as well. As usual, Broyles had called her whilst it was still dark outside and told her that he had a case for them in Hartford. There had not been many Fringe related cases during the past few weeks and the ones that they had actually solved had been pretty minor, at least compared to what they usually worked with. Olivia had spent most of her time working regular cases along with Astrid who had needed something else to do than being at the lab since there was nothing to do there at the moment. But now they had a case that definitely belonged to the Fringe Division, at least according to Broyles.<p>

After the crime scene investigators had secured the area and the coroner had bagged the body, Olivia authorized them to start their examination and then take the body to the lab. She made a quick phone call to let Astrid know that they had a new case and to meet her at the lab in a few hours. Just outside the ambulance, Olivia talked to a young agent who had been one of the first ones at the crime scene. The woman told her that the victim's name was Robert Danzig and that he and his partner were on a foot chase through the industrial area.

"Where is the victim's partner?" Olivia asked the woman.

"That's him there." The agent answered as she pointed at a man leaning against a police car further down the alley. "That's agent Lee."

"Great. Thank you." Olivia answered as she walked over to where the man stood.

"Agent Lee? Olivia Dunham." She said as she reached out and introduced herself. "I understand that you and your partner were in pursuit of a suspect?"

"We were tracking the sale of some illegal weapons." He answered slowly.

"I was hoping to ask you some questions about what you saw." Olivia said.

"Sure." He answered simply as he looked at her. "Who are you?"

"I'm from a special division." She told him firmly, but he still looked pretty unconvinced. "I am not at liberty to disclose any more than that."

"So the person who attacked your partner, can you describe him?" She continued as he looked at him.

"When I first got there he was kneeling over Robert. I couldn't tell what he was doing but his skin was…translucent." He explained slowly. "It's what you see on Robert's face but more of it."

"And when he was kneeling over agent Danzig, did you see anything in his hand? Like a device that could have done this?" Olivia asked him firmly.

"No, I didn't see anything." He answered as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the ground. "I have requested our field office ME. He's on the way, he's good. He's thorough."

"Thank you." Olivia said nod. "But we're going to take the remains back to our facility."

"Wait a minute! You're telling me…That's my partner?" He said, not happy at all about any of the things that were happening.

"I understand how you feel but-" Olivia started but was quickly interrupted.

"You're some division coming in here and taking over…" He exclaimed as he looked at her. "You won't even tell me who you are?"

"I can assure you that this case will take…" Olivia started but was once again interrupted by the upset agent.

"Have you seen the suspect before?" He asked firmly. "Do you know _who_ he is?"

"I am not at liberty to discuss this." Olivia tried to tell him.

"This is my partner we're talking about here!" He said loudly as he looked at her. "Maybe you can't understand that? I'd like to talk to someone else."

"There is no one else. There is just me." She told him, which was not entirely true but she was the person in charge of Fringe Division and the one who worked the cases.

Agent Lee just stared at her, anger and sadness clearly evident in his eyes as she headed to her car and drove off towards the lab.

_**Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe - Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe** _

"_All I'm saying is that there has to be another way!"_ Lincoln Lee stopped outside the door as he heard the loud voice coming from one of the rooms inside the Harvard University. He opened the door and walked inside where he spotted an old man dressed in a white lab coat.

"_The thing about playing Devil's advocate, my dear, is that your client is the Devil himself."_ The man said as he walked over to a table.

"_Walter, we're fixing the world."_ A woman's voice was heard from somewhere in the large lab. _"What other choice do we have? Thank god that machine didn't blow everybody up, you know it could've."_

"Excuse me." Lincoln said as he approached the man who was currently in the middle of something involving a syringe and what seemed to be a dead bird.

"Here hold this." The man said as he handed Lincoln the bird and then gave it an injection. "3...2...1."

Lincoln watched with amazement as the small bird suddenly came to life in his hands and quickly flew up to the ceiling. The peculiar man had brought a dead bird back to life with a simple injection. Who was this man? Lincoln had a lot of question of who they all were and what they actually worked with. The man definitely seemed pleased by his own work.

"Walter, you brought it back to life." A young woman with curly hair said as she walked up to them, carrying a black box in her arms.

"No, no, no it's still quite dead." The man, named Walter told them. "Wonderful, isn't it?"

"Who are you people?" Lincoln asked.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Olivia said loudly as she came out from one of the other rooms. The bird fell to the floor as he followed her to a quieter place in the lab.

"Tapping into traffic camera feeds without a warrant? You and who ever helped you with this is in a lot of trouble." She told him as she looked at the pictures he had been forced to give her. "You are _not_ a part of this investigation. You need to leave."

"I have spent the last two hours going building to building, I am not leaving here without some answers." He said as he followed her down to the rest of her team. "What division are you in? What are we dealing with here?"

"I'll just give your division head a call." She said firmly, almost threatening him.

"I see." He said as he took out his phone. "I have a friend at the New York Times who would love to know that there is a division of the FBI operating out of Harvard, with a man who can make dead birds fly."

"It's for you, it's Broyles." The other woman said as she handed Olivia the phone.

"If you really want a story, you should look under the dome." Walter told him as he looked up at him from where he was sitting. "I'm growing an ear."

"There's another body." Olivia said quickly as she got off the phone and turned to them once again. "Let's go."

"I'm coming with you." Lincoln told her firmly.

"You keep going like this you're gonna talk yourself out of the bureau." Olivia said as she looked at him.

"I was at the first crime scene. Maybe I saw something that I haven't told you yet." He said, refusing to take no as an answer. "Maybe that's why I came here."

"Alright, come." She said firmly as she started to walk towards the door. "You can get fired later."

The drive to the new crime scene was short, and completely quiet. Olivia could tell that agent Lee was just as frustrated with her as she was with him. She understood that he wanted answers to who she was and what she actually worked with. He wanted answers that she could not give him. Not that she expected him to even believe her if she had told him that she worked for a division that solved cases involving terrorists in parallel universes.

By the time they reached the crime scene that had been secured by the emergency responders and investigators. The night was filled with lights and blaring sirens from the ambulances and police cars all gathered around a crashed vehicle. Olivia got out of her car and went towards the scene, Lincoln following right behind her. The lead agent on the scene briefed them on what little fact they had already found out. He told them that the victim's skin was semi-translucent, just like on Lincoln's partner.

"Hey Olivia!" Someone said from behind her, and she was surprised to find Peter standing there when she turned around.

"Peter." She said with a small smile. "What are you doing here?"

"Broyles called me about an hour ago and told me about the case." He said casually as he glanced at Lincoln with a small frown.

"This is agent Lee." Olivia told him with a nod and watched as the two men shook hands. "Have you seen the body yet?"

"Yeah." Peter answered slowly. "It's one of them."

"One of them?" Lincoln said as he looked at them, confusion written all over his face. "What do you mean by that? I thought these two murders were unrelated?"

"It's not just two." Olivia said as she glanced at Peter before going over to the crashed vehicle.

They were on good terms again. The first few days after their breakup had been hard on both of them, especially since they had to work together. Olivia had avoided him the best she could, just because it was surprisingly painful to be near him. She missed him. She missed their movie nights on the couch. She missed sleeping next to him at night after a long day. She even missed his sarcastic comments whenever Walter said something.

After three weeks of avoidance and small talk in the car on their way to crime scenes, Peter had approached her in the lab one day.

"_Olivia?" Peter said slowly as he leaned against the door frame outside the small office at the lab. "Can I talk to you for a second?"_

"_Yeah sure, what is it?" Olivia asked as she looked up from her paperwork. _

"_I just…" He started as he grabbed a chair and sat down in front of her desk. "Are you doing okay? I mean we never talk anymore but I want you to know that I'm still here."_

"_I know that." Olivia replied simply. _

"_I don't want things to be like this. I don't want us to be like this. Not talking." He said sadly as he looked at her. "You can still talk to me about everything, you know that right?"_

"_Of course I do." Olivia answered honestly. _

"_Good." He said with a smile that made her chest tighten painfully. She knew that she could still talk to him if she needed to. That never changed. But she still could not talk to him about everything. Not anymore. _

_**Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe - Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe** _

Olivia and Peter had brought Lincoln to meet Broyles at the large storage area that was currently being used as a temporary morgue in the federal building. The room had at least two dozen tables, each one with a cadaver on top of it. Broyles had explained to Lincoln Lee what Fringe Division was and what they worked with. Lincoln had been confused and somewhat shocked to find out that there were so major things going on without people knowing. Parallel universes and alternate versions of themselves had been excluded from the conversation since that was not something Lincoln needed to know at the moment according to Olivia. Peter was not sure why but Olivia did not seem to like the guy at all.

Broyles had also told him that the odd murders had only started a few days ago. The victims hearts all stopped but Walter or anyone else had been able to determine how or why their skin had reacted the way it had. There was nothing that connected the victims to each other. They were all different age, race and blood type. Lincoln had told them that his partner had Crohn's Disease and that he used to take iron pills to counter the symptoms.

After their visit to the morgue they went back to the lab to find out what Walter could tell them about the last victim. When they walked through the doors to the lab, Peter spotted Walter leaning over the body from the crash. Astrid was standing next to him, reading something on a paper, presumably test results from Walter's autopsy. They both looked up when they heard them come in. After a few minutes Walter began to go over the autopsy with them.

"It's sad." Walter said as he looked down at the woman's body.

"What is?" Olivia asked.

"Engagement ring." Walter said slowly. "I don't think there's anything sadder than when two people are meant to be together and something intervenes."

"Walter here is the test results." Astrid said quickly as she handed the paper to him. She had seen the looks on Peter and Olivia's faces when Walter sort of mentioned their breakup.

"I believe it was your idea agent _Lee,_ to test each of the victims for iron related diseases. They may share that in common." Walter said as he looked at Lincoln. "Very clever! Wrong, but clever."

"Well it was just a long shot." Lincoln told him.

"And yet interestingly, they do all suffer from a variety of health problems." Walter told them. "Gout, hair loss, kidney diseases… which in themselves have something in common."

"Which is what, Walter?" Olivia asked.

"They're all caused by some form of heavy metal poisoning." Walter explained. "Led, zinc, mercury..."

"And what could that possibly mean?" Lincoln asked with a frown.

"I don't know, but with thirty odd victims it's unlikely that it's a coincidence." Walter answered. "And something else; the levels of metal in their bodies has returned to normal. It's as if their blood has been cleaned."

"He's taking particles from their blood?" Peter asked as he looked at his father.

"So it seems." Walter answered slowly. "I don't have enough information to form a hypothesis yet. But it would seem that he needs a lot of it."

"Okay, well I'm gonna call Broyles and let him know." Olivia said.

Peter watched her walk away towards her small office in the lab. Astrid had disappeared to somewhere else in the lab and Walter was trying to explain something to Lincoln who just looked at him with a confused expression. Not that anyone could blame him. Trying to understand what Walter was talking about was never easy, and when it involved the things they worked with in Fringe Division it was nearly impossible to understand. But to Peter's surprise Lincoln had not reacted the way most people did when they found out about what was actually going on right under their noses. Clearly he had been shocked and to say the least astonished by their secret division and the work that they did.

"If Walter is right and we assume that he's selecting these victims on purpose, then the question is; how is he identified?" Olivia said as she walked out of the office, almost bumping into Peter who was waiting right outside the door. "OK. I'll let you know."

"Broyles have anything?" He asked as she hung up the phone.

"No not really." Olivia answered.

"So where did he come from?" Peter asked slowly, referring to Lincoln.

"He's Robert Danzig's partner from Hartford." Olivia answered. "And he refuses to leave until he gets the information he wants."

"Yeah I noticed." Peter said. "So what is gonna happen to him?"

"What do you mean?" Olivia said as she looked up at him.

"Well is he going to sign a document that prevents him from telling anyone about us or is he joining Fringe Division?" Peter asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"I don't know." Olivia answered honestly. "That's up to Broyles. Why?"

"It might be good for the division." Peter said with a shrug as they went back to the others.

"You mean you aren't returning these people to their families?" Lincoln asked with a frown.

"We can't do that." Olivia said as she approached them.

"Why not?" He asked as he looked at her.

"Because we can't disclose how they were killed." Olivia explained. "The families are informed that they have gone missing, that we will continue to look for them."

"You mean you lie to them?" Lincoln pointed out angrily.

"Look, there is no other way." Peter tried to tell him, defending Olivia since it was not her fault. It was not even her decision to keep the bodies.

_"You understand what you're saying? Those families are going to spend the rest of their lives wondering what happened to their loved ones, looking for answers." Lincoln said as he looked at Olivia. "Can you imagine what that would be like? To have that… that hole in your life."_

_"The reason we can't return the bodies is because that would mean we would have to file documentation, which would draw attention to Fringe Division." Olivia said calmly. "And we cannot have that. It may not be a good enough answer but it is the truth."_

_**Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe - Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe** _

_Peter sat in the front seat of Olivia's car outside the Avon Station. He glanced in the rearview mirror at Lincoln who sat quietly in the backseat. Olivia was right outside the car, currently on the phone with Broyles about something. They had found out that the location of the murders had not been random at all, there were four kill zones and they were all centered around the commuter rail stations. So after their argument at the lab Peter and Lincoln had gone with Olivia to the station along with a few other teams of agents that were watching the different stations. _

"Just so you know, she does know what it's like." Peter said slowly as he looked at Lincoln in the mirror. "She lost her partner too. About three years ago. There was some accident during their investigation and he came into contact with something that affected his skin, like your partner but different."

"Then she came to me and we checked Walter out of the mental institution he was in at the time so that he could help her catch whoever did this and save her partner's life." Peter continued as he looked at Olivia through the glass window of the car.

She was so close but yet so far away from him. It was hard to think that he would never be so close to her as they had been only a few months ago. They'd had a good relationship as friends ever since the beginning. When they became a couple he never imagined spending his life with anyone else, not after what they had been though. When he found out that the Olivia he had been living with was not _his _Olivia, every part of him hurt. The guilt had been eating him up from the inside and out.

Of course he understood that it was more than hard for her to be around him after she had found out. He understood why she told him that she did not want to be with him. But actually hearing her say the words had made his heart break. He was the one that had caused her that pain and that was one of the worst moments in his life. At that point, he had been so sure that they would never be together because of him. But then somehow they had kissed and she had been outside his door in the middle of the night with a bottle of whiskey in her hand. It had not been his first time with Olivia, but it had been the first time with _his_ Olivia. He knew that she was the one he wanted to be with, the only one. No one could ever take her place, but he could not tell her that. Not after everything that had happened.

"He's outside Grove Hall Station." Olivia brought him back from his thoughts as she quickly got in the car.

"They found him?" Peter said as they drove towards the other station in a furious speed.

"_He's running towards the warehouse, through the rail lines."_ A voice came from the radio in the car.

"Copy, we're almost there." Olivia answered as she drove into the large industrial area.

When they arrived and Olivia hit the brakes, they heard the gunshots and the screams from the agents over the radio. Peter glanced at Olivia before they got out of the car and ran towards the rail lines with Lincoln following as well, gun already placed firmly in his hands. Once they came closer and went behind the partial trains, they found one of the agents lying motionless under one of the rail tankers.

"Where is-" Lincoln started but was immediately interrupted by a groan coming from the other side of the rail tanker.

"He's been shot." Olivia said as she quickly kneeled down by the other agent who was still alive. "He's gonna bleed out if we don't get him help."

"Alright go. Check the warehouse." Lincoln told them as he removed his tie. "If he's still here, don't let him get away. I got this."

"Okay I'll take this side." Olivia said and handed him a spare gun as they moved away quickly. "You cover that one."

"Be careful." Peter said firmly as he went the other way.

Olivia quickly moved towards one of the warehouses. Once inside, she slowly worked her way through the building with her gun drawn. She heard movement in one of the rooms further down the building. When she slowly entered the room, she saw the shape shifter standing at a table. There was a small fire burning in a large metal drum behind him. On the table in front of him, there was a brown briefcase and just when he was about to grab it Olivia walk through the door.

"Don't move." She said firmly as she slowly walked towards him, gun aimed and ready. "Drop it."

But as soon as the words left her mouth she was hit by the briefcase, making her drop her gun. The shape shifter quickly moved in and grabbed her by the throat before throwing her down on the floor. Olivia quickly tried to stand up but he was right behind her. She was clearly not strong enough to fight the unnaturally strong human shape shifter. The man grabbed her and threw her through upright shelving. Glass shattered all around her as she fell to the ground. She spotted a loose syringe on the ground but even though she managed to stab him in the neck, there was no reaction what so ever from the shape shifter. He just pulled the syringe out of his neck and leaned down to grab her again.

There was nothing she could do anymore. The shape shifter was too strong and without her gun there was not much she could do to him. The syringe had not influenced their fight at all. He was still as strong and furious as before as he threw her into some large storage barrels. But when he tried to grab her again Olivia managed to hit him in the face with her elbow. He stumbled back and it gave her enough time to reach for her pistol. When she turned around again she quickly pulled the trigger and he fell to the ground.

Outside the warehouse, Peter had just shot the shape shifter in front of him when he heard multiple gunshots coming from inside the warehouse. Olivia was inside. That was all it took for him to start running towards the entrance. When he got inside, it was completely silent. His heart was beating twice as fast as usual and his breathing was quick. He had to find her.

"Olivia?" He shouted as he ran towards one of the rooms. When he came inside he spotted the shape shifter on the floor along with Olivia. She sat with her back against a few barrels, her shaking hands gripping the gun tightly as she breathed.

"Olivia?" Peter said softly as he quickly kneeled down in front of her. "Are you hurt?"

"No I'm okay." She answered slowly as she took a deep breath, but he was not listening. Peter took the gun out of her hands and looked her over to make sure that she was not hurt. But all he found was a few cuts and contusions. None of them would require stitches.

"Come on, let's get out here and find Lincoln." Peter said as he helped up from the floor, but he did not let go of her arm.

"I can walk by myself you know." Olivia said slowly, but just as she spoke there was a sharp pain in her knee that made her stumble. Peter held onto her so that she would not fall to the floor.

"Sure you can." He said sarcastically as they slowly made their way out from the warehouse. They could already hear the sirens from the police cars and ambulances that were on their way.

"You don't have to worry about me anymore." Olivia said later when she sat in the back of the ambulance. The paramedics had checked her out and told her that the pain in her knee was not serious but it was probably going to be a bit sore for a few days.

"I'm always going to worry about you Olivia." Peter said honestly from where he was leaning against the ambulance. "That will never change."

"Thank you." She answered softly as she looked at him. "For being here."

"Any time." He said with a faint smile.

_**Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe - Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe – Fringe** _

Lincoln put down the last items on his partner's old desk into his bag. He had left the scene at the warehouse after a while and gone back to the federal building where he worked. Olivia and Peter had both thanked him for his help before they had gone back to their lab with the new body. The agent who had been shot in the leg had been transported to the nearest hospital and they told that he would be fine.

Just as he was about to head home, another agent came up to him and handed him an envelope. The man did not say anything. He just placed the paper in his hands and walked away. Lincoln slowly opened the envelope and read the content that brought a tiny smile to his face. Robert's body was going to be released to his family. They would be to have a proper funeral. He presumed that Olivia had pulled some strings with her supervisor to make this happened. But there was another paper inside the envelope and Lincoln did not know how to react to what he was reading. Fringe Division was offering him a job. Although a job at a classified division for the FBI sounded incredibly fascinating, especially after the things he had been through over these two days, but he liked his regular job and the people he worked with. However, his partner and best friend had just died. This work would not be the same without him anymore.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who reads this fic and to those of you that send me the nicest reviews. It means lot, thank you!

Let me know what you think! (:


	6. A Bad Feeling

Peter had a bad feeling.

It was 8.30 in the morning. Outside the rain was pouring down from the dark clouds in the sky. It had been raining almost nonstop for the past three days. Neither Peter nor Walter had left the house, except for a short visit to the store nearby. The constant raining was keeping everyone inside. Peter had gone over to Olivia's apartment a few nights ago to give her some things he had bought for her. She'd had difficulty walking because of her sore knee, the following days after her encounter with the shape shifter at the station. She had called him in the afternoon and asked if he was going to the store and if he could buy some things for her as well, and though he had not planned to leave the house that day because of the rain, he could not say no. He had never been good at saying no to her, especially not when she asked him to do something for her.

There were no cases at the moment and a part of him was very glad about that because it meant that he did not have to go outside in the heavy rainfall, but the other part of him was going insane. Being stuck in a relatively small house with Walter for more than 24 hours without anything interesting or enjoyable to do and along with Walter's daily experiments was enough to drive any sane person to the edge of insanity. Peter was used to Walter and his abnormal ways of living his life, without any boundaries or rules, and his tolerance was definitely higher than it had been before. But three days was a long time. Peter had only been awake for two hours and during that time, Walter had managed to almost kill him twice.

Peter's morning had not started well at all. He had woken up with a massive headache due to the amount of alcohol he had been drinking the night before. Walter had been unusually annoying and Peter did what he always did whenever he needed to calm down. Living with his father at his age was not what he had planned when he was younger, especially not when he was in a relationship. But things had changed. Walter needed him there, he was not able to live by himself and Peter did not mind anymore. He had spent almost his entire life in different places around the world, running from everyone including himself. But then Olivia had forced him back to Massachusetts and back to his life. And it was the best thing that ever happened to him. He had a family now.

It had started with one bottle of beer on the couch whilst Walter had been preparing their dinner in the kitchen. Peter was usually the one who cooked, but occasionally Walter decided that he wanted to make something for Peter, which often included the weirdest meals and recipes he had ever eaten. Their evening had been going just fine until Walter started to talk about Olivia. Peter had tried to change the subject, but from that point it was just downhill. Walter had only continued to point out all the things that Peter had done wrong and how upset he was with their breakup. All Peter had done was to explain to him that it was better this way, though he was not sure he believed that himself. After Walter had finished his lecture and gone to bed, Peter had moved on to the bottle of scotch instead of his beer. Talking about Olivia always brought up the memories he was trying to move on from.

And the fact that his father subconsciously had almost killed him this morning was not the best start of his day. It had been an accident. Walter had cleaned the floor with his homemade soap and failed to mention that it was still very slippery on the floor. Peter had not noticed until he was on his back on the hardwood floor with an even worse headache. He had gotten up and gone to the bathroom before joining Walter in the kitchen.

"Peter. You're up early." Walter said as he placed the plate of blueberry pancakes on the table.

"Yeah, well, I couldn't exactly sleep." Peter mumbled as he sat down and rubbed the back of his head. There was already a small bump forming.

"Oh. Why is that, son?" Walter asked. "Was your room to cold?"

"No Walter, my room was fine." Peter told him as he grabbed a pancake.

"Is it the absence of agent Dunham that causes your sleep deprivation?" His father asked as he looked at him. "I think you should invite her over Peter. She most likely has the same issue."

"Walter I've told you a thousand times." Peter said with a sigh. "We're not together anymore. I can't just ask Olivia to come over just because you want to."

Before Walter could say anything else, the sound of Peter's phone echoed through the house. Peter knew who it was right away, since no one else would call them at this hour. Olivia.

"Hey." He said as he answered and sat down on the couch.

"_It's me." Olivia's voice said through the phone. "Did I wake you?"_

"No it's fine." Peter said slowly. "What's up?"

"_I need you and Walter to get ready to go in an hour." She told him. "We have a case." _

"You've got to be kidding me." Peter said with a small groan as he leaned back against the couch. "It's pouring out there."

"_It's just water Peter." Olivia said, and by the tone of her voice he knew she was smiling. "I'll pick you up in an hour." _

"Fine, see you then." Peter said as he hung up the phone.

Walter was still in the kitchen when Peter returned to the table to finish his breakfast. He was currently placing the ingredients he had used back into the cupboards.

"Walter we need to be ready to leave in an hour." Peter told him as he ate the last piece of his pancake.

"Oh, where are we going?" Walter said as he looked at him.

"Olivia called. We have a case." Peter told him simply.

* * *

><p>Olivia stopped her car outside the small house where Peter and Walter lived. The lights were turned off inside the house and through the blurry windows of her car she could see them standing right outside the front door. The pouring rain had subsided into a slight drizzle and Olivia hoped that it would stay that way for at least a few hours. She watched them make their way towards her car, though her gaze was focused entirely on Peter. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans and his black pea coat. She loved that pea coat on him, she always had. It made him look incredibly good. He was not Peter without his pea coat.<p>

"Hey." Peter said as he got in the passenger seat and Walter in the back.

"Hey. You okay?" Olivia asked as she glanced at him, noticing the circles around his eyes.

"Just a hangover and a bad fall." Peter said slowly as he rubbed his eyes to rid the tiredness.

"A bad fall?" Olivia asked confusedly as she drove down the road. "Let me guess, Walter?"

"Yeah, he forgot to mention that he cleaned all the floors in the house while I was asleep." He explained. "So I ended up with my back on the floor."

"Peter." Walter exclaimed from the back of the car. "Why did you not mention that you fell?"

"Because I'm fine Walter, it's just a bruised ego." Peter said as he rolled his eyes.

"Actually you can't physically bruise your ego son." Walter said as Peter sighed and Olivia smiled. "That probably had nothing what so ever to with the fall."

"So what's up?" Peter asked, referring to the case they had gotten.

"Apparently two teenagers found a body in the park." Olivia told him.

"That doesn't really sound like our kind of case." He said as he looked over at her.

"The body isn't entirely human." Olivia said with a small grin.

"Another shape shifter?" Peter asked with a frown. He was still a bit shaken up after their last encounter with the shape shifter at the railway station where Olivia had fought one of them alone.

"It seems that way." Olivia answered with a nod.

"Well that's just great." Peter said as he leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes. "How's your knee by the way?"

"What?" Olivia said before she realized what he was talking about. "Oh, it's fine. Still blue and sore, but at least I can get my own food now."

"Good. That's good." He said as he looked out the window. "I'm not really a big fan of rain."

"Yeah I know." Olivia said with a small grin. "Remember the time when we went to that place in Hudson River Valley?"

"You mean the clearing by the river?" Peter said, his eyes closed and a small smirk on his lips. "How could I forget?"

_It had been a relatively warm day in the beginning of March and they both had the day off. Astrid had offered to go with Walter to the science center so that Olivia and Peter could have a day for themselves, which was something they rarely got. Olivia told him that she just wanted to stay at home and maybe go to the cinema, but Peter had other plans for them. _

"_How much further is it?" Olivia asked as they walked on the narrow path in the forest near the Hudson River. They had been walking for hours and just enjoyed spending time together. But Peter would not tell her where they were going exactly. _

"_It's just a few minutes left I think." He told her as he grabbed her hand and smiled. _

"_You've been saying that for an hour." Olivia pointed out with a grin. _

"_No I haven't." He said as he looked at her with feigned shock. "I know exactly where we are." _

"_Of course you do." She said, clearly unconvinced. _

"_You know, I used to spend a lot of time out here when I was younger, before I ran away to Europe and all of that." Peter told her slowly as he stopped and turned towards her. "And I do know exactly where we are because this is where I wanted to take you."_

"_To the middle of the woods?" Olivia asked as she looked up at him with a small smile._

"_Not quite." He answered as he leaned down and kissed her softly before whispering in her ear. "Turn around." _

_Olivia slowly turned around to see that they had reached a small clearing with steep cliffs leading down to the trees below. When they got closer she saw that it was an observation deck. There was a small bench in the middle that was surrounded by a three thick wooden walls as protection against the wind. She took a few steps forwards and looked around. In the distance she could see the Adirondack Mountains. It was incredibly beautiful everywhere she looked. After a few minutes she felt Peter's arms wrap around her waist as he pulled her back against his chest. _

"_It's beautiful, isn't it?" He whispered as he pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek. _

"_It is." She said slowly, still staring at the sight in front of her. "Thank you."_

"_I love you Olivia." He said sincerely as he held her close to his body. _

"_I love you so much." Olivia said as she turned around in his arms and looked up at him, tears glistening in her eyes. "I don't know what I would do without you."_

"_You won't find out. I will never leave you." Peter said as he wiped away the tears that had left her eyes. He gave her a soft kiss before they walked over to the small shelter and sat down. _

"_You brought coffee?" Olivia said as he handed her a small cup and a sandwich. _

"_Of course I did." He said as he took a bite from his own sandwich. "After a walk like that, we definitely need it."_

"_You're absolutely right." She said as she grabbed her coffee. _

"_So was this better than going to the movies?" Peter asked as he leaned back against the back wall in the small shelter. _

"_Absolutely." She told him as she leaned her back against the wall, right next to his shoulder. "Although a warm blanket and something softer to sit on would have been nice." _

"_Well then." Peter said as he grabbed the bag from the ground. Before she could react he had pulled her onto his lap, taken off his own jacket and put it over her shoulders. _

"_Peter!" She said with a laugh as she held onto his shoulders. "What are you doing?" _

"_I'm softer than the bench." He said with a grin as he looked into her green eyes. _

"_You sure about that?" Olivia said as she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned down to kiss him softly. _

"_No, not really." Peter mumbled as he deepened the kiss. He placed his hands on her hips and slid them up her sides and under her white blouse. _

"_Peter, we can't do this here." She said as she pulled away and rested her forehead against his. _

"_Yes we can. No one ever comes up here." He mumbled as he moved his lips to the spot between her neck and shoulder that he knew made her crazy. He knew her body from tip to toe, every single spot that made her moan and beg for more. _

"_Peter." Olivia sighed as she buried her head in the crook of his neck. "No condoms."_

"_Please." He said as he moved his hands to the front of her blouse, unbuttoning the buttons one by one as his lips found her collarbone. "You know you want to." _

"_What if someone comes?" She said as she shivered, not from the cold but from the feeling of his hands running up and down the bare skin of her sides. _

"_They won't." Peter told her as he kissed her. "No more talking."_

"That was _not _what I meant." Olivia said with a small glare as she looked over at him.

"Maybe not, but that's a good memory." He said with a smirk.

"Yeah." She said slowly as she focused her eyes on the road, suddenly avoiding looking over at him. "It is."

Peter knew exactly why she could not look at him. He knew what she was thinking. That day, in the middle of the forest up on the observation deck near the mountains and the river, they had sex without a condom or pills. That day in the beginning of March, when everything had been incredibly perfect, they had made a baby. Peter was sure of it. Of course it could have happened some other day, but that was unlikely. And it was killing him to know that if he had stopped that day, maybe none of this would have happened. If he had stopped when she told him to, they would never have been forced to go through this. They would have been together.

He could not lie. Those were the thoughts than ran through his head every day. That he could have done something to prevent all that had happened. He knew it was not his fault, or Olivia's for that matter, but that did not stop the guilt that he felt. And the fact that his father continued to point out everything he had done wrong did not really help.

"Peter?" Olivia's voice brought him back from his thoughts. He opened his eyes and found her staring at him with slightly raised eyebrows. The car had stopped but there were no other cars nearby or any signs of a crime scene.

"Where are we?" He said as he looked around and noticed that Walter was not in the backseat anymore. "Where is Walter?"

"We are in the parking lot outside Burger King." Olivia told him as she looked at him. "Walter wanted a strawberry milkshake and told me to stop here."

"And you said yes?" Peter said with raised brows.

"Well, you were almost asleep over there and he wouldn't exactly take no for an answer." She said with an amused smile.

"How long has he been gone?" Peter said with a sigh.

"About ten minutes." She answered. "Why?"

"Wouldn't want to be late to work, right?" He said slowly as he felt the back of his head. It was still quite sore if he put pressure on the small bump.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Olivia asked with a frown as she watched him wince slightly. "How hard did you hit your head?"

"Olivia I'm fine, okay?" He said sharply, but regretted it immediately when he saw the hurt in her eyes. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine." She said simply.

"No Olivia, it's _not_ fine." He said firmly. "I'm tired and I have a massive hangover, but that doesn't mean I get to take it out on you. I don't want to fight with you anymore. I never wanted to."

"Peter I'm sorry-." She started but he quickly cut her off.

"Stop apologizing." He ordered gently as he looked at her. "You have nothing to be sorry for. None of this was your fault."

"How can you say that?" She said as she looked out the window.

"Because it's the truth." He told her slowly. "I don't blame you for anything, you know that right?"

"Yeah." Olivia answered as she took a shaky breath and turned around to look at him. "I do."

Before they could continue their conversation, the backdoor opened and Walter's voice filled the car. He had a milkshake in one hand and a blue balloon in the other.

"Oh Peter, you're awake." He said as he closed his door and held the balloon in front of him. "Look! The young lady in the cashier gave me a balloon after I had ordered my milkshake."

"That's nice Walter." Peter said, not at all interested. They had just started driving again when Olivia's phone rang.

"Dunham." She said as she answered.

"_Hi, it's me." Lincoln's voice said. "Broyles called me and told me to meet you guys at the crime scene at the park."_

"Okay, good. We're almost there." Olivia said as she turned onto a smaller street. "Are you on your way?"

"_I'm just leaving the driveway." He said and started the car._

"Okay. I'll see you there." Olivia said before she hung up the phone.

"Lincoln?" Peter asked as he glanced at her.

"Yeah." She confirmed. "He just pulled out."

"If Peter had done that as well, you two would still most likely had been a couple." Walter said suddenly.

"Walter!" Peter said as he closed his eyes and threw his head back against the headrest in frustration mixed with total embarrassment.

* * *

><p>Peter slowly walked around the scene in the park. Olivia was somewhere nearby, talking to the young teenagers who had found the victim. Lincoln had gone with Walter to the ambulance to do a preliminary exam of the body. The victim's skin was the same as on the other ones, translucent. Just like the shape shifter from the railway station. The body had been found on the ground in the middle of one of the running tracks that went through the entire park. Just as he was about to head back to where Olivia and the other were, something caught his eye. There was something just at the edge of the woods, or someone. He could not see exactly, but as he got closer he realized what he was looking at. Someone dressed in a suit, tie and a hat. Suddenly the man turned around and slowly walked through the bushes.<p>

Peter ran. He could feel his heart banging furiously against the inside of his ribcage, pumping blood and oxygen through his entire body. His breathing was shallow and there was not enough air filling his lungs, but he had to keep going. The man he had seen just a minute ago, had not been a regular person. It was one of them. An Observer. Peter had followed him as soon as he turned around and went through those bushes and into the woods at the park. He was not sure where he was right now, but he could not be far away from the part because he could still hear the faint sounds from the sirens on the police cars at the crime scene. He stopped to catch his breath and to look around. The Observer was nowhere to be seen.

"Damn it." He said as he put his hands on his knees and breathed. But then he realized that there had been another voice and when he looked up, there he was. It was the same Observer who had attacked him in the forest after he had been abducted and tortured by the man who was after the cylinder that had disappeared down into the ground. It was the same Observer that had shot him with some sort of pulse pistol after he had chased up on top of a building.

"Why are you here?" Peter asked, and the bald man repeated every word just like he suspected. "What do you want? Do you know anything about the shape shifters?"

The Observer just stared at him, his head turned slightly to the side. He looked exactly the same as he had the first time Peter had met him. Not a single thing had changed. Peter knew they did not age, but to actually see it was a different matter.

"You have a bad feeling." The Observer said calmly as he looked at him. "You think that something is going to happen to you."

"Will it?" Peter asked in a low and almost daring voice. But the Observer just kept staring at him, completely calm and collected as if nothing bothered him. "Will something happen to me?"

"She was pregnant." The Observer said slowly and Peter frowned. "The child was not meant to be."

"What?" Peter said slowly, anger now pulsing through his veins. "How? Did you people do something to her?"

"Everything happens for a reason." The Observer told him as he pulled out his pistol from the pocket inside his suit.

Before Peter could react, the bald man had aimed the same pulse pistol he had used the last time and pulled the trigger once again. The pulses went through his body like electricity, only they did not hurt. It was like vibrations. The only thing that hurt was when he landed on the ground a few meters from where he had been standing. The sore bump on the back of his head hit the ground and the last thing he could hear was the Observer talking. He could not make out what he was saying until everything went dark.

* * *

><p>"Peter?" A soft voice brought him back to consciousness. "Peter can you hear me?"<p>

Peter groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. He was instantly met with the concerned eyes of Olivia, who was currently on her knees beside him on the ground. He was still lying on the cold dirty ground where he had been knocked out by the Observer who, of course, was nowhere to be seen. As he blinked a few times to clear his eyes, he noticed that there were a few other people around him including Lincoln.

"Peter?" Olivia said as she placed her hand on his cheek to try and help him focus. "Can you sit up?"

"Yeah." He said with a cough as Olivia helped him sit up.

"Here, take a deep breath Mr. Bishop." One of the EMTs said as he placed an oxygen mask over his mouth.

Peter did what the paramedic told him to since it was easier to breathe with the sudden supply of oxygen. His head was pounding and his body felt as if it was made of concrete. Someone was touching the back of his head but he barely noticed. He just took a few breaths and listened to Olivia's concerned voice as she held his hand and told him to breathe. He squeezed her hand as he looked at her. She gave him a comforting smile.

"What happened?" He said as he removed the oxygen mask from his face. His voice was hoarse and he started coughing once again.

"Stop talking." Olivia said as she pressed the mask back on his face. "Well, Lincoln and I saw you running towards the woods. We thought you had seen someone, so we went after you."

"How's the head?" Lincoln said as he crouched down beside them, interrupting Olivia.

"S'fine." Peter said as he nodded.

"Probably shouldn't have had those last few drinks last night, right?" Lincoln asked with a small grin as he stood up and left them alone. Peter looked after his with a frown, not understanding what he was talking about.

"Where did he go?" He asked as he removed the oxygen mask and looked at Olivia again.

"Where did who go?" She asked confusedly.

"The Observer." He said as he looked around.

"Peter you passed out." Olivia said slowly. "Probably from the hangover mixed with the head wound."

"What? No." He said with a frown. "The Observer was here. He's what I was chasing in here."

"Peter there was no one here." Olivia told him.

"Olivia I know what I saw." Peter said firmly as he looked into her eyes."He was here. He was talking about you and me. And then he told me that everything happened for a reason. He had that small pistol, the one he used on me the last time on the roof and he shot me but he said something and I-"

"Hey Peter, calm down." Olivia said as she placed her hand on his shoulder gently.

"I'm not making this up." He told her. "Olivia you have to believe me. You have trust me."

"I believe you." She said as she got up from the ground before reaching down to him.

"But do you trust me?" He asked as she helped him stand up. He was still a bit unsteady on his feet but not enough to fall over unless he tried to walk. Once he was sure that he would not fall, he gently pressed the top of his fingers to the back of his head. The small pressure made him wince slightly, but it was not that bad. There was no bleeding, which was a really good sign. Blood was bad.

"Yes, I trust you." Olivia told him honestly as she held onto his arm, still not sure if he was able to stand up by himself. "Come on, let's go find Walter. He's probably worried."

With Olivia's help they managed to get out from the woods where he had been found. It had taken a good fifteen minutes before they reached the grass field in the park again and it made him wonder how far in he had actually ran before. He could not remember, he had been too focused on finding the man he had been chasing. As soon as they got back to the field, they were immediately met by an upset and worried Walter.

"Peter!" He exclaimed as he almost ran up to them. "Son, what happened?"

"I met our favorite bald man." Peter said as they went over to Olivia's car.

"The Observer?" Walter asked him with a frown. "But why would he hurt you?"

"I don't know Walter." He answered with a sigh.

"It doesn't make any sense." Walter said slowly. "He would not hurt anyone intentionally. That is not what they do. They simply _observe_ things."

"Well this time he didn't." Peter told him slowly.

"Let's get you back to the lab so that I can take a look at your head there, son." Walter said. "I was told that Astro has offered to pick us up."

"Aren't you coming?" Peter asked as he turned around to look at Olivia with a frown.

"I have finish up here." She told him. "I'll come by later."

"Good." He said with a nod as he got in the passenger seat of the car.

"Just try and stay conscious, okay?" Olivia said with a smile before she walked away.

* * *

><p>"Walter I am fine." Peter said with a sigh as his father looked at his wound for what felt like the hundredth time that hour. "Please just finish your autopsy and leave me alone."<p>

"Peter, you of all people should know that a head injury should not be taken lightly." Walter said firmly but backed away anyway.

"Walter, Peter is fine." Astrid tried to tell him as she looked at them from where she was sitting at her computer. "The test results from the victim are done. Let's go and look at them instead."

"Thank you." Peter said gratefully as he watched the young woman lead her father away from him. He sat down on one of the chairs in the lab. All he wanted was a few quiet minutes.

"Excuse me, sir?" Someone said from behind him. Peter looked up en found a man dressed in a police uniform standing behind him, holding a small package in his hands. "Is this the lab where Fringe Division works?"

"Yeah, how can I help you?" Peter asked simply.

"They told me to bring this to you." He said as he handed him the package and walked away.

"Okay." Peter said slowly as he looked at the box in his hand. Something was not right. He walked over to the table and slowly started to tear the paper away. But when he opened the box, he felt his heart and lungs stop moving. His whole body froze for a second before he pushed the package off the table and on the ground.

"Peter where did you put the-" Astrid said but stopped when she saw Peter turn around, his eyes filled with fear and panic.

"Get down!" He shouted loudly. And she did. She ducked down behind one of the counters. Two seconds passed. Three seconds. Then there was a loud explosion. The shock wave made the whole room shake. Things were falling down from the shelves and counter tops.

Then there was silence.

* * *

><p><em>Let me know what you think so I know what you want to read :)<em>


	7. Love Will Come Through

The whole lab was filled with dust and black smoke. There were things everywhere. Boxes that had been placed in the shelves and on top of the tables were now spread all over the floor, along with almost every surgical instrument, microscope and computer they had. Small pieces of debris floated down from the ceiling. The windows were blown out and the entire floor was covered with shattered glass and pieces of metal. She was on the ground. She had obviously fallen, been forced off her feet by the shock wave caused by the explosion.

Astrid slowly opened her eyes and slowly sat up on her knees. She was on the floor, right beside the counter she had taken cover behind. The lights in the ceiling flickered. She blinked and rubbed her eyes a few times to clear them from the dust that covered her entire body, as well as the whole lab. When she looked down at herself, there was no red blood pool on the floor around her and there were no bones sticking out of her arms or legs. She had a few bleeding cuts that would probably require stitches, but that was it. She was okay. She was alive. An explosion had gone off just in a few meters away and she had survived. But then she remembered that she was not the only one that had been in the room.

After a few tries she managed to stand up on her feet. Instantly she was hit with a wave of dizziness that made her grab the burnt counter. The room was spinning in front of her. She could hear the pulsation of her own blood as it pumped against her ear drums. It was almost a buzzing sound, like a small bee that was somehow caught in her ear. There was a lot of damage, but it was not as bad as she had thought. Of course, there had been an explosion, but it could have been much worse. The amount of chemicals that Walter had in the lab would probably be enough to blow half the building up. Luckily, she had placed all of them in special containers and stashed them in the back in case some tests would ever go wrong. But there was no time to think about what could have gone wrong.

Then something caught her eye. Peter was on the ground over by the entrance door. She made her way over to him as quickly she could with all the broken things on the floor. He was covered in dust just like everything else. There was blood coming from a deep gash on his forehead, right under his hairline. But he was breathing. It was light and shallow, but his ribcage was definitely moving. He was alive.

"Peter?" She said, her voice raspy as she tried to wake him up. But there was no movement, no reaction. Fortunately her phone was still working as she called for an ambulance. "This is agent Astrid Farnsworth with the FBI. I need an ambulance at the Harvard University immediately."

"_We're sending people to your location as we speak." The man who answered the phone told her. "Can you tell us what happened?" _

"There was an explosion. I think it was a bomb but I'm not sure I-" She said quickly.

"_How many people are injured? Was there anyone else in the room with you?" He asked. _

"It's just me and two other agents." She told him as she looked down at Peter who was still unconscious. The man said something else but Astrid was not listening anymore, at least not at what he was saying. She had heard something else. She had heard Walter's voice from the back of the lab.

Astrid quickly removed a piece of her sleeve and placed it on the bleeding cut on Peter's head. She made sure that he was still breathing before she stood up and as quickly as she could, she made her way towards the noise. The closer she got, the clearer she could hear it. The sound was coming from the small office in the back and it was definitely Walter. It almost sounded like he was crying.

"Walter?" She said loudly as she approached the door. There was a large beam outside the door that made it impossible to open the door.

"Astro?" He said and he almost sounded surprised or maybe confused. "Is that you?"

"Yes Walter it's me." She said with a slight cough. The smoke had subsided but there was still quite a lot in the air. "Are you okay?"

"I heard the explosion and then the door wouldn't open and I couldn't hear you anymore." He told her. "Peter! Where is Peter?"

"He's alive Walter." She reassured him immediately. "But he's unconscious. The ambulance should be here any minute and we're gonna get you out."

"How bad is it?" Walter asked through the door.

"Do you mean the lab or Peter?" She asked him slowly as she leaned against the door. She knew that she needed to get back to Peter in case he got worse, but she also knew that she could not leave Walter scared and alone trapped behind a door.

"Both." He said quietly.

"It will need some renovating." Astrid said softly as she closed her eyes. "But it'll be as good as new and so will Peter."

After a few more minutes of waiting, the ambulance and four field doctors had finally arrived. There were a few police men there with them since the FBI had most likely not heard anything about the explosion yet. After two of the EMTs had carried Peter out on a gurney and left for the hospital, one of the other had almost forced her to come with him out to the ambulance to get checked out. He had noticed the cuts on her forearms from the shattered glass on the floor. She had barely noticed them. They did not hurt, which was probably from the adrenaline running through her blood stream. Still, she let him clean the cuts from dust and glass pieces. They were not deep, which meant they had not required any stitches, so one of the field doctors had just placed a small bandage over her wrist before she went back inside to find Walter again.

The large beam that was blocking the door had just been removed as Astrid came inside, and since Walter was unharmed physically there was not really anything else for them to do than follow the ambulance to the hospital to be with Peter. By the time they drove off towards Boston General, the lab was filled with crime scene investigators that were collecting what evidence they could find in the debris. There was a lot of it. Astrid just hoped that they would be able to find out who did this.

"Are we at the hospital soon?" Walter asked for the hundredth time in ten minutes. Any other time Astrid would have thought it was amusing, but right now, it was anything but that. Walter was beside himself with worry. They had no idea how Peter was or if he was badly injured or not.

"In a few minutes Walter." She answered calmly as she focused on the road.

"What happened to us? How bad was he? Was he bleeding? Did you check his pupils?" He said quickly, clearly in a shock from what was happening.

"Walter calm down." Astrid told him slowly, trying to make him calm down. "I don't know what happened, but Peter was hurt pretty bad Walter. I'm sorry."

"Where is agent Dunham?" Walter asked when he had calmed down slightly. "Does she know what happened to Peter?"

"No, I haven't called her yet." Astrid answered slowly as she parked the car outside the ER at Boston General where the ambulance had brought Peter.

* * *

><p>"Hey Lincoln, did you get the statements from the young couple who found the body?" Olivia asked as she walked up to Lincoln who was talking to another agent at the scene.<p>

They were still in the park where the body had been found a couple of hours earlier. After Peter and Walter had gone back to the lab at Harvard, she and Lincoln had stayed at the scene to finish their work. They had to stay and talk to the witnesses, help process the scene and a lot of other things that was not that funny. Olivia loved her job more than anything. She could not imagine doing anything else. Being an agent was what she had always wanted, ever since she had been a kid. She wanted to protect people from the bad things in the world, just like she had protected Rachel from their stepfather.

But of course there were things that she did not enjoy about her work. The amount of paperwork that came with every case was not her favorite thing to do. Sometimes she enjoyed it and sometimes she hated it. But it had to be done, fun or not. And since she did not really have anything else to do in the evening, she spent her time at her kitchen table, going through the case files of her recent cases.

"Yeah but they didn't have anything." Lincoln said as he looked at her. "All they could tell me was that they saw someone move away from the body, but that's it. How about you, did you get find anything?"

"No, there is nothing here or in the woods." Olivia told him.

"You think Peter saw that man?" He asked as he glanced at the trees where they had found Peter a few hours ago.

"I don't know what he saw or didn't, but yeah, I think he did." Olivia answered slowly. "It wouldn't be the first time the Observer made an appearance during one of our cases."

"What do you mean?" Lincoln asked curiously as he turned his gaze back to her.

"About two years ago we had this case where the Observer was somehow involved." Olivia explained as she thought back. "He crashed into our car and then when Peter and I went after him he had this…weird pulse pistol or something that he shot Peter with up on the roof."

"Do you have any idea who or what they are?" Lincoln asked with a frown.

"No." She said simply. It was the truth, they did not have any idea what the men in the suits did or who they were. They had a few theories of course, but none of them were probably right. Before she could say something else, her phone started vibrating in her pocket.

"Dunham." She answered firmly.

"_Olivia, it's me."_ The voice that she recognized as Astrid's came through the phone.

"Hey I was just gonna head over to the lab, are you still there?" Olivia asked.

"_Olivia there was an explosion in the lab."_ Astrid told her slowly. _"Peter's in the hospital."_

"What?" She asked, not sure that she heard her right. "What do you mean there was an explosion? How?"

"_I don't know how, it happened so fast."_ Astrid explained. _"We're at Boston General. You need to come down here."_

"I'm on my way." Olivia said as she hung up the phone and quickly made her way towards her car.

Lincoln was right behind her. He was talking, but she could not hear any of what he was saying. Her head was blocking everything out. All she could hear was her own thoughts. And at the moment, they were not good thoughts. There had been an explosion in their lab and Peter was hurt.

"Olivia!" The sound of Lincoln's loud voice and the firm grip from his hand on her arm made her stop. "What happened at the lab?"

"Look I can't-I don't…" She tried to say, but the words were stuck in her throat. "I need to get to Boston General."

"Give me your car keys and we'll go." He told her as he held out his hand and looked at her. Olivia reluctantly handed him the small key ring and watched him open the door for her. With a shaky breath, she got in the passenger seat of her car and closed the door behind her.

Lincoln quickly made his way around the car to the driver seat. He was not entirely sure what had happened in the lab, but it was obviously pretty bad. Olivia had said something about an explosion when she was on the phone with whoever it was. He had seen the look on her face as she listened to what the person told her. The flash of fear and worry in her eyes along with the fact that they were going to the hospital told him that someone on the team was hurt, someone she cared deeply for, which was either Peter, Walter or Astrid.

The first time he had met Olivia and her team, he had not liked them at all since their case involved his partner and they would not tell him everything. He had been furious when Olivia said she could not discuss the case with him. Now he understood why though. The things he had seen and experienced the following weeks after he had decided to join their Division were unbelievable. Human hybrids with translucent skin, highly intelligent serial killers that stole happy memories from regular people and a scientist that could make dead bird fly was not something he had ever imagined working with, but he liked it. He liked it because it was not ordinary, it was not boring. There was always something interesting when it involved them.

From what he had noticed, Olivia was not the kind of woman who got close to people or as Peter had told him when they went out for drinks one night; she always kept people at arm's length to avoid getting hurt.

"_So how long have you worked for the FBI?" Peter asked as he sat down at the bar next to Lincoln. They had decided to go out for a few drinks after work since Lincoln recently started working with them. _

"_About five years now." Lincoln answered as he looked around the small bar. "How about you?" _

"_Well, I'm just a civilian consultant so I don't really work for them." Peter explained as he took a drink from his beer. "Although they actually pay me for it."_

"_Yeah, Olivia told me about that." Lincoln said as he grabbed his beer. _

"_Really?" Peter said with a small grin. "Did she tell you that she practically threatened me to come back here with her?"_

"_Come back here?" Lincoln said with raised eye brows. _

"_Yeah, when she first found me, I was in Baghdad trying to run a scam on these two Iranian businessmen." Peter explained as he took a sip of his beer. _

"_I didn't pick you as the scamming type." Lincoln told him. _

"_That's what made me so good at it." He said with a smirk. "Anyway, it was all supposed to be temporary. She told me I just had to babysit Walter while he was working on a case for the FBI and then I could leave and go back to my own life."_

"_I guess it didn't really turn out that way?" Lincoln said, more as a statement than a question._

"_No, not really." Peter answered. "But I'm not complaining. It's a great job."_

"_Yeah, it's definitely different than most." Lincoln said with a nod. "Does it ever get to you? I mean everything that you know and can't tell anyone about."_

"_Sometimes, not as much as before though." He said with a shrug. "The first cases were pretty tough, but you'll get used to it."_

"_Well, I hope so." Lincoln said simply. "Alt-universes, shape shifters…Olivia said that eventually, all of this is going to seem run of the mill. Which, frankly, I'm having a hard time believing. It's insane how none of this seems to bother her." _

"_Yeah, that sounds like her." Peter said slowly as he took a swig of his beer. "You know… she's tough, incredibly stubborn, doesn't let anyone tell her what to do."_

"_I've noticed." Lincoln said with a nod. "She seems very…driven." _

"_Oh she is, she definitely is." Peter agreed. "Sometimes maybe even too much, which is one of the reasons why I am still working for the FBI. I actually tried to leave a few weeks after our first case…Walter was driving me insane and I didn't really want to stay in Boston at the time."_

"_And why didn't you?" Lincoln asked, slightly curious about what happened during the early years in Fringe Division, but also about who the people in it really were. "Let me guess, Olivia forced you to stay?" _

"_No, not really." He answered with a grin. "Olivia sees the best in people, even when they don't see it themselves…and that's sort of why I stayed. She made me realize that I could actually do something good for the first time in…well, a very long time. And of course, there were things going on that I couldn't even begin to explain, so I decided to stay."_

"_Ever regret that decision?" Lincoln asked._

"_No." Peter answered simply._

"_Okay." Lincoln said with a small nod. "So what's the best case you've had so far?"_

"_Best case?" Peter said as he tried to think back to the cases they had worked over the past three years. There were many cases, but only a few that had been particularly interesting. "Probably when we stopped a black hole from swallowing half of Brooklyn last year." _

"_Seriously?" Lincoln asked as he looked at him with raised eyebrows. "There was a black hole in Brooklyn? How could I have missed that?" _

"_Because things that involve Fringe Division never really make the news." Peter told him. "At least not what actually happened. If the reporters do make it to our crime scenes, the FBI makes up some lame story to prevent people from knowing what's really happening." _

"_Makes sense." Lincoln said as he took a sip of his beer. "I used to believe just a few months ago that, uh, I understood the world we lived in. I mean, there were basic truths that I thought were…well…true. But now…"_

"_You think you're gonna be able to handle this?" Peter asked with a small grin, but his voice was serious. _

"_Investigating strange and unexplainable crimes in different universes with you guys?" Lincoln said with a smirk. "I think I'll manage." _

"_Well then." Peter said as he raised his bottle. "Welcome to the team."_

Due to the heavy traffic this time of day in Boston, the relatively short drive to the hospital felt like hours. Even with the sirens on, it was hard to get through. Olivia had not said a single word wince they left the park, she just stared out the window. Lincoln kept quiet, giving her the space and time she needed to herself. He could tell that she was more than worried due to the way her breathing shifted from shallow shaky breaths to slightly deeper ones.

Olivia was out of the car before it had fully come to a stop outside the emergency room. She instantly spotted Astrid's dark blue car parked a few parking spaces away from where they were. Apparently she had driven her own car to the hospital which meant at least Astrid was okay. She knew that she should have been more than relieved, but Peter was somewhere in that hospital and she had no idea how badly hurt he was. She did not even now if he was alive anymore.

The emergency room was filled with doctors dressed in their white coats, nurses in their light blue scrubs, just like the ones you saw on television. Almost all the beds were occupied by patients, young and somewhat older, some more injured than others. The sound level inside was loud, patients and their family members were crying, machines were beeping, doctors and nurses were running from patient to patient. It was exactly as she remembered it. After all, she had been a patient here a few times during her life, the last time only a couple of months earlier. The memories were hazy, kind of indistinct, almost like an old dream. Though in her case, more like an old nightmare.

"Olivia." Lincoln's voice said from behind her.

"I-I'm sorry." She said quickly. "I don't know where they are, Astrid didn't say."

"It's this way." He said as he started walking down one of the corridors. Olivia followed him, a questioning frown on her face. "I asked one of the nurses."

The hallway was much quieter than the crowded ER. It was similar to where her room had been the last time when she had been admitted, but it was not the same corridor. The pattern on the floor was different; it was a darker shade of beige than the one in her room, which was something she remembered because she had spent a lot of time just staring at the floor that day. The paintings on the wall were different as well. These ones were of the ocean.

"Excuse me." Someone said from behind them as they walked through the doors leading to another section of the hospital. "This area is for staff and immediate family only."

"We're looking for the federal agents that were brought in about half an hour ago." Lincoln said as he showed the nurse his badge.

"Olivia, Lincoln!" Astrid called out as she walked up to them. "They're with me."

"How's Peter?" Olivia asked as soon as she got closer.

"He's with the doctors now." Astrid told her calmly. "They did an MRI, and they said that he has a concussion."

"Oh my god." Olivia said, barely over a whisper.

"His vitals are stable, but they haven't been able to wake him up." Astrid explained.

"What happened?" Olivia asked as she looked at her desperately, needing to know how this could have happened.

"I don't know what happened." Astrid said as she shook her head. "I was in the back with Walter, then when I came out to Peter he just yelled at me to get down on the ground, and I did. I have no idea what caused the explosion."

"Okay…okay." Olivia said as she ran her hand through her hair and breathed. "Where's Walter? Is he alright?"

"He's with Peter." Astrid answered with a reassuring nod. "He's a bit shaken up, but he's fine."

* * *

><p>Two very long hours later, Olivia sat in a small, comfortable armchair with her head in her hands. She was desperately trying to focus on her own breathing, instead of the steady beeping coming from the heart monitor attached to Peter's unconscious form in the bed in front of her. He was dressed in a pale blue hospital gown, just like every other patient in the building as well as the scrubs that the nurses wore. According to the doctors he was doing well, considering the circumstances of what happened to him. The concussion was pretty bad, but there were no indication that anything else was wrong with him, besides all the small cuts and the dark bruises that covered the left side of his face.<p>

Astrid had taken Walter to the cafeteria downstairs to get him something to eat, and frankly, because he needed to calm down a bit and leave Peter's side for a moment. He had been sitting in the chair that she was currently in since the doctors had moved Peter from the emergency room to the hospital room he was in at the moment. Walter had been beside himself with worry, he had checked both Peter's vitals and his pupils almost every fifth minute for any signs that he was getting worse. The fact that he had not woken up yet, even made Olivia more worried than necessary. She knew that if someone had a concussion, they should try and stay awake, not sleep. But the doctors had assured her that he was fine and that he would probably wake up within a few hours. All she had to do was wait.

With a deep breath, she stood up and slowly made her way over to his bed. She carefully sat down on the bed next to his sleeping form and looked at him. The slight swelling and the dark bruises on his face made her eyes water, but she quickly blinked the tears away, not wanting to break down. No matter how bad she felt, she could not let herself fall apart. He was alive and he was going to be fine.

Olivia slowly placed her hand on his right cheek and traced her hand up the side of his face before she gently ran her small hand through his brown curls, careful not to put pressure on the wound on his forehead.

"You're gonna be okay Peter." She whispered as she held his hand in hers and looked down at him. "You just have to wake up."

Outside the room, Astrid stood next and watched the scene in front of her. She watched as Olivia gently stroked his face and held his hand in hers. Astrid knew that Olivia still loved him more than anything, and that he still loved her as well, but they were both to stubborn, and of course, still too damaged from their past experiences to admit the truth. Their feelings were still there, everyone except themselves could see that.

"How's he doing?" Lincoln said as he walked up next to her and looked in through the glass window from the hallway.

"They said that he's gonna be fine." Astrid said as she glanced at him before she turned her gaze back to the room.

"They seem pretty close." Lincoln said cautiously.

"Yeah…they are. Or well, they used to be." Astrid told him slowly. "Up to a few months ago, they were a couple."

"But something happened, something no one should have to go through as a couple, and they couldn't really get back on track after that." Astrid continued slowly. "At least not then…but they will, eventually."

_love will come through it's just waiting for you..._

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> like it or hate it? let me know :)

btw; thank you for all the reviews to the last chapter!


	8. Strong

_This was not Boston General. _

_That was the first thing he noticed when he woke up in an uncomfortable hospital bed, dressed in nothing but a light blue hospital gown and a paper bracelet around his wrist. There were several catheters stuck in his arms, allowing the IV fluids and medication to drip into his body. One of the monitors next to the bed beeped, monitoring his heart rate, blood pressure, and occasionally injecting morphine into his system. The familiar smell of a hospital reached wafted his nose, but it was stil different. _

_The walls at Boston General were grey or white, some of them even light blue, but these were olive green. There was nothing familiar about the place. He felt out of place, like he did not belong there. It felt as if he was in the wrong place. There was no one else in the room, and there were no indications that anyone had been there either, nor could he see any of his personal items on the small bedside table or anywhere else around him, which was odd. _

_He remembered the whole day up to the point when the explosion occurred and knocked him completely unconscious. Everything after that was just black. He had no idea how long he had been asleep, or unconscious due to the trauma that he assumed he had suffered from the explosion in the lab. He did not even know where he was. Neither Walter nor Olivia was there, and by the looks of it no one had been there for a while either. It was dark outside and his first thought was that maybe they were at home, sleeping, but he knew that could not be the case. Walter would never leave his side if he was in the hospital, he would not even leave his side at home whenever he had a fever or even the slightest injury from being out in the field with Olivia. _

_Peter slowly sat up in bed, wincing at the throbbing headache that made him feel lightheaded and the room to start spinning slowly around him. With a deep breath he shifted on the hard bed, stifling a groan as his limbs protested with a dull ache that only added to the pounding in his head. He carefully ripped the catheters from his arms and shifted his body so that his feet were touching the floor beneath the bed. The floor was cold against his bare feet as he slowly stood up, holding onto the side of the bed as leverage in case his legs decided to give out under him. But he wanted to know where he was, and in order to find that out he needed to get out of the bed. _

_As he opened the small closet, he was surprised to find that it was completely empty. None of the clothes he had been wearing were in there, or any other for that matter. He closed the closet door with a frown before he walked over to the large window. The blinds were closed, but he could still see the city through the small cracks and from what he could see, he was still in Boston. Just as he was about to move the blinds to the side so that he would be able to get a better view of where he really was, he heard footsteps behind him. _

"_Olivia." He said, relieved to see Olivia standing in the door way as he turned around. "Thank god you're here."_

"_Who are you?" She said as she looked at him confusedly, almost like she was trying to place him. _

_Peter just stared at her, too shocked and confused to form words that anyone would understand. He did not understand what was happening. Olivia looked like she had just seen a ghost, but it was him. She knew him. He knew her. But somehow, she could not remember him. He felt lightheaded and the room was spinning wildly as the room turned completely black. _

_He sat on a chair in one of the holding rooms at the federal building. Walter was sitting right in front of him, but it was not his Walter. It looked like him but it was not the man he called his father, and it was not his real either. The man in front of him did not remember him, just like Olivia. Everything was fuzzy. He could not remember how he got to the room he was currently in. Everything between the time when Olivia walked into his hospital room and until now was gone. It was as if he had been half awake during the entire time, like he was jumping from one place to another without noticing, or remembering for that matter. _

"_You don't know who I am, do you?" He said as he looked at the man in front of him. Peter swallowed hard and closed him as he saw him shake his head slowly, letting him know that he did not remember him. _

The next time he opened his eyes, Peter found himself once again in a hospital, dressed in the very same blue hospital gown as he had been before. The catheters were stuck in his arms and the monitors were beeping next to him. But when he turned his head sideways this time, he spotted Walter in the armchair in the corner of the room. He was asleep, but the loud sound coming from the heart monitor apparently woke him up because when Peter opened his eyes once again, he was immediately at his side.

"Peter! You're awake!" Walter exclaimed happily.

"Walter?" He said confusedly as he blinked a few times to clear his eyes.

"Yes Peter, it's me, your father." He said as he pressed two fingers against Peter's wrist, checking his pulse even though the monitors attached to his body did the same thing. "How are you feeling, son? Does anything hurt?"

"My head." Peter mumbled as he tried to sit up. "How do you…where…you remember me?"

"Remember you? Of course I remember you son." Walter said as he looked down at him. "Why wouldn't I?"

Peter had no idea what to say to his father because he did not understand what had happened himself. How was he going to explain that somehow he had already woken up but in a place where no one remembered him? A place where he had been treated as a fringe event by the people closest to him, a place where the people he loved more than anything could not remember him.

"Nothing." Peter mumbled as he rubbed the side of his face tiredly. "Just a bad dream."

"Here, drink this." Walter said as he handed him a plastic cup filled with cold water from the sink in the small bathroom. "How do you feel, son?"

"Like I've been thrown across the room because a bomb exploded in my face." Peter said sarcastically as he slowly drank the water Walter had given him.

"Any physical pain? Headache? Nausea?" Walter asked as he pulled out a pen light from his pocket and tried to check his pupils.

"Headache." Peter told him simply.

"That's not uncommon when you have a concussion Peter. You should know that." Walter told him. "I will ask Astro to get the doctor to increase your morphine dose when she comes back."

"Astrid's okay?" Peter asked as he looked up at his father.

"Yes, she is perfectly fine." Walter reassured him with a nod. "She went to get me another pudding from the cafeteria downstairs."

"Why am I not surprised?" Peter muttered as he gave him a small grin.

"Agent Dunham has been here the whole time, but then that new man came to pick her up." Walter told him.

"Lincoln Lee?" Peter asked slowly.

"Yes, him." Walter said with a nod. "She did not want to leave you Peter. But something happened with the case."

"It's okay Walter." Peter said with a sigh, not really in the mood for any more lecturing about him and Olivia. "She has to do her job and Lincoln works with us now, remember?"

"Of course I do." Walter said. "My memory is perfectly fine. _You_ are the one with a concussion."

"I know that Walter. You don't have to remind me." He said as he leaned back against the bed and closed his eyes, letting his body relax and hooping that the throbbing in his head would somewhat subside.

"You should try and sleep some more." He heard Walter tell him before everything went black and he fell back into a deep sleep.

* * *

><p>"So what do we know about him?" Olivia asked as she and Lincoln stood behind the glass window, looking at the man inside the interrogation room on the other side of the glass.<p>

"Not much. His name is Paul Edwards 38 years old, from Washington D.C but moved to Boston a few years back." Lincoln told her as he scanned the file about their suspect. "No criminal history, except for a restraining order against an ex girlfriend."

"So why would he suddenly send a bomb to our lab?" Olivia said with a frown. "It doesn't make any sense."

"As if anything around here makes sense." Lincoln said simply. "Surveillance cameras outside Harvard caught him entering the building dressed in the standard Boston PD outfit just a few minutes before the bomb went off."

"Then let's see how he explains that." Olivia said as she left the room only to enter on the other side of the glass where the suspect was seated, cuffed to the metal table in front of him.

"Mr. Edwards." She said as she sat down on the chair in front of him. "I'm Olivia Dunham and this is agent Lincoln Lee."

"It doesn't matter what your name is." He said as he looked at her. "I'm still not going to talk."

"This is a photo of you entering the Harvard University about five minutes before the bomb inside our lab went off." Olivia said slowly as she placed a photo on the table in front of him.

"You wanna tell us what you were doing there?" Lincoln asked.

"Isn't that pretty obvious?" He answered.

"Who are you working for?" Olivia asked coldly as she stared at him.

"I told you honey, I'm not going to talk." He said with a disgusting smirk. That was all it took for her to lean forward and yank the metal chain to his handcuffs down so that their faces were just centimeters apart.

"My friend is in the _hospital_ because of you and if you don't tell me who you're working for, I'll make sure that you never see anything but the inside of a prison cell for the rest of your life!" She told him as she stared into his eyes.  
>"Olivia come on, let go." Lincoln told her as he grabbed her arm gently to make her release the chain to the handcuffs. "What are you doing?"<p>

"He is our only lead to find out who's responsible for the shape shifters and everything that's happening." Olivia told him.

"I know, but he's not gonna talk right now." He said slowly. "Why don't you go over to the hospital and see how Peter is doing and I'll finish up here?"

"Okay." She agreed, desperately wanting to leave. "Thank you."

"No problem." Lincoln assured her. "I'll talk to you later."

* * *

><p>A few hours after she had interrogated Paul Edwards at the federal building along, a very tired Olivia walked down the corridor that led to Peter's hospital room. Astrid had called her a few hours earlier to let her know that Peter was awake and that he was doing fine according to the doctors. He had been conscious and talking for a while before he had gone back to sleep, which was good according to Astrid. Olivia only hoped that he would be awake when she walked through the doors to his room. She needed to see for herself that he was truly okay. It did not matter that everyone had told her that he was going to be fine. She still needed to see it with her own eyes, needed to hear his voice as he joked about the problems in the world and complained about his father's behavior.<p>

He was not awake.

Olivia carefully sat down on the bed next to his sleeping form, careful not to wake him up even though that was all she wanted to do. Despite the amount of bruising on the side of his face and the red irritated gash on his forehead, he still looked incredibly beautiful to her. He looked less burdened, maybe even more carefree. She always thought he looked so much younger when he slept, particularly in the morning when he was completely relaxed and in a deep sleep next to her, her back pressed against his chest and his arm wrapped loosely around her waist to keep them as close together as possible.

Olivia didn't know how much time that had passed until she felt his body start to move slightly and a soft groan broke the silence that filled the room. He took a deep breath and she watched as his eyes fluttered open. It took him a few seconds to realize that she was there, sitting on the bed next to him with a small smile on her face as he brought a hand up to rub the sleep from his eyes.

"Hey there sleepyhead." She said as she smiled at him.

"Isn't that usually my line?" He said with a small grin.

"Maybe." She said as she looked at him.

"You okay?" He asked as he noticed the look on her face and the circles around her eyes.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" She said with a small smile.

"Probably." He replied. "But you don't look so good."

"Well thank you." She said though she knew that was not what he meant.

"That's not what I meant." He told her. "You look tired."

"I'm exhausted." She admitted. "I've been working with Lincoln all day, doing paper work and interrogations."

"Anything interesting?" He asked, referring to whether or not they had found something out about the explosion. "You know who tried to kill us?"

"No, not exactly." Olivia explained. "We caught the guy who delivered the bomb to the lab, but he won't tell us who he's working for."

"You think he's involved with whoever is creating these human shape shifters?" He asked with a frown.

"Yeah, it makes sense." She answered slowly. "So, how do you feel?"

"Better than a few hours ago." He told her honestly. "The drugs help a lot."

"Yeah you looked pretty bad when I first got here." She said as she remembered his battered face, scrunched up in pain even whilst he was unconscious.

"What, you don't think I look hot with the bruises and the massive tear in my forehead?" He said as he grinned at her.

"Massive? It's not that big." She said as she looked at him with raised eye brows.

"Oh, I beg to differ." He said.

"Why do I get the feeling that we're not talking about the cut on your head anymore?" Olivia asked as she looked at him.

"Why would you think that?" He said with a small smirk.

Just as she was about to answer him, one of the nurses entered the room, interrupting their conversation. Olivia recognized her from earlier when she had been here whilst Peter had been unconscious. She smiled softly as she stepped back to let the nurse clad in scrubs checked his vitals and redressed the bandage on his wrist from where they had removed several small pieces of glass when he had been brought in.

"You seem to be doing just fine Mr. Bishop." The nurse said with a smile when she was done with her examination.

"Does that mean I get to leave this place anytime soon?" Peter asked as he looked up at the nurse, giving her the grin that he always used on Olivia whenever he wanted something. That annoying grin that made her submit to whatever he said or whatever he wanted. It was impossible to say no to that face.

"I'll talk to your doctor and then we'll see." The nurse told him, and there was no doubt that the charming smile had worked on her as well from the way she smiled at him, something that made Olivia turn her gaze towards the window instead.

"Great. Thank you." Peter said as she left the room and he turned his head to where Olivia stood. He watched her as she stared out the window, clearly lost in thought since she had not turned around once the nurse left. "What's on your mind?"

"What?" She asked as she turned around to look at him again. "Oh, nothing, I'm fine."

"Which tells me you're not." He said softly as he looked at her.

"When did you get so good at reading me?" She said slowly.

"Considering that I have spent the last four years working with you, suffice to say that I _know _you." He said with a slight shrug. "And when you say you're fine, you're never fine."

"I guess you're right." Olivia answered slowly, not sure what to do or say.

"Come here." He said as he patted the place on the bed where she had been sitting at only a few minutes ago. Olivia let out a small sigh but did what he asked her to anyway. "So you wanna tell me what's wrong?"

"Peter." She sighed as she turned her head away from his gaze.

"Olivia look at me." He said softly. "You can still talk to me. Don't try to do everything on your own."

"I'm not." She protested softly.

"Then tell me what's wrong." He told her as he looked into her eyes that were now glistening with unshed tears.

"When Astrid called and told me what happened…I didn't know if you were okay or if you were…" Olivia tried to say but the tears started to run down her cheeks as she looked at him. "I don't want you to die..."

"Olivia." He said as he leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her shaking body. "Hey it's ok. I'm okay, I'm not going anywhere."

"I'm just so tired." She said as she pressed her head against his chest, her tears making his hospital gown wet as they continued to flow down her cheeks in abundance.

"I know. I know." He said softly as he rubbed soothing circles on her back as she cried. "It's ok. Just breathe."

They sat there for several minutes until Olivia stopped crying. He sat up in the bed with her body practically in his lap as he held her close and continued to whisper softly in her ear until she relaxed. Even though his back was getting sore from the position he was in, he could not bring himself to let her go, not now. This was the first time in months that he had been this close to her, the first time in months that he was able to hold her close to him and he was not ready to let her go. Not even close.

Being this close to her brought back so many memories from their time together, both good ones and bad ones. It brought back memories of what they had been through, all the great moments they have had together during the past four years. He remembered the time when he had promised her that he would never leave her, that he would never leave her side and that she was never going to have to be alone again. Peter hated himself for breaking that promise. He never intended to, but to him, that was not an excuse. It was a simple thing, keeping that promise was simple but he had failed. That was the thoughts that were going through his mind as he held her body against his. He held the body of Olivia Dunham, the woman that he loved more than anything, pressed against his own sore body.

Of course he still loved her. He never stopped loving her; there was no way anything like that would ever happen. She was the love of his love. That would never change, no matter what happened between them. His feelings never went away after their break up and he knew that hers still remained the same as well, but it was hard. They couldn't just go back to how things were before, no matter how desperately he wanted to.

After a few more minutes of silence, Olivia slowly pulled her head from his shoulder and wiped her nose with the sleeve of her arm before she looked up at him. Her eyes and cheeks were red and puffy from all the salty tears that had made their way down and onto his hospital gown. He brought a hand up to brush a few strands of her tousled blond hair from her face as he looked deep into her green eyes. Even though her hair was a slight mess, her face was red and swollen from the salt he still thought she looked absolutely beautiful. In his eyes, she always did. No matter what time at day it was, what she was wearing or what mood she was in, she was always the most beautiful woman in the world to him.

As he looked into her eyes he saw nothing but pure love and affection mixed with vulnerability. There were no traces of fear. His eyes flickered down to her lips briefly and he watched as she bit her lip, something she did whenever she was nervous. Slowly, he tilted his head to the side and closed his eyes as he leaned down and softly brushed his lips against hers. Time seemed to stop for a second as he paused, his lips pressed lightly against hers as he waited for her to push him away and leave him there. But she never did. Instead, she placed a hand on his chest and kissed him back. He kept one of his hands on her waist as he brought the other one up to her cheek as he kissed her softly but still with more passion than ever. But as soon as it started, the perfect moment was over as Olivia pulled back.

"Peter I can't. I'm sorry, I just can't-." She said as she shook her head and stood up, leaving him alone on the bed.

"Olivia wait!" He said desperately, but she was already on her way out through the door and as much as he wanted to chase after her, he couldn't.

But she had kissed him back.

_You think that I'm strong you're wrong..._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: not really the most exciting chapter, I know..<br>But I promise you that there is some good things coming up as well as some stuff you're probably going to hate me for.. :)  
>As always, thank you for the nice comments, they mean a lot! :)<strong>


	9. Alone In The World

Olivia Dunham sat at her workstation in the Situation Room in the middle of the Federal building, going through her old case files that needed to be updated with new information or placed away in a box somewhere back in the storage room. Paperwork was not the best part of her job, nor was it the funniest, but it needed to be done. After every finished case they had worked, there were always tons of rapports and files that she needed to fill with information. Every little detail about the case had to be written down. Of course there were other agents who could do a part of the work, but Olivia liked to do things herself. That way she knew that it would be right. Peter used to help her when they were together. They would sit in her small kitchen and do the work together before they went to bed. Now she had to do all the work by herself.

"Hey." Lincoln said as he walked up and sat down on the edge of the desk in front of her. "I got word that you wanted to see me. Did we get any news on the shape shifter tech?"

"No, I just wanted to know how things went with Paul Edwards yesterday after I left." She said as she looked up at him. "Did he tell you who he's working for?"

"No, that guy knows what he's doing. He's not going to tell us anything." Lincoln told her. "So where were you last night?"

"What?" Olivia asked with a frown.

"Well, Peter called me and asked if I knew where you were." He said with a small shrug. "Apparently he tried to call you and you didn't pick up."

"Oh, I went to bed pretty early." She said slowly, though that was definitely not the truth. "I guess I didn't hear the phone."

Before she could say anything else, the familiar sound of her cell phone ringing interrupted their brief conversation from going any further, which Olivia found herself feeling slightly relieved about that fact. She knew that Peter and Lincoln got along pretty good and that they sometimes went out for drinks after work, she just hoped that Peter wouldn't tell Lincoln about what had happened between them. At least not all of it.

"That was Broyles." She told him as she hung up the phone a minute later. "We need to go to Hyde Park."

"Okay." Lincoln said simply. "I'll get our things."

"I'll be right there, I'm just gonna call Astrid and tell her to meet us there." She said as she grabbed her phone and went towards the exit.

After she had called Astrid and told her to get Walter and meet them at Hyde Park as soon as possible, Olivia went down to the parking lot in the basement under the federal building where her black SUV was parked along with all the other similar ones. The whole basement was filled with black or silver colored cars of the same brand which made it somewhat difficult to find your own, especially when you were new.

Olivia did not have any trouble finding exactly which car was her own now, but she remembered the first time when she had stepped out of the elevator with Charlie during her first week at the Bureau. When she had arrived particularly early that morning there had not been any cars in the parking lot at the time, but a few hours later when she and Charlie came down to get the car, the underground parking had been completely filled with cars that looked exactly like her own. She remembered that she had spent nearly ten minutes trying to find her car whilst Charlie had just laughed at her. It was much easier now when the cars all had remote controlled locks that made a relatively loud noise when you pressed the small button on the key remote.

"You'll drive, I presume?" Lincoln said as they walked towards the car.

"Well, it is _my _car after all." She said with a small grin as she got in behind the wheel and waited for Lincoln to get in on the other side.

"Has anyone else _ever_ driven this car?" He asked as they left the underground parking lot and began their drive towards Hyde Park.

"Peter has, at least a few times." She told him simply. "Though he just wanted to use the siren… which almost ended with us upside down on the wrong side of the road."

"How did he manage that?" Lincoln asked with a frown.

"Well…there was a woman in the backseat and she somehow got her handcuffs around my neck, Peter was startled and the car swerved onto the wrong side of the road." She explained to him.

"Now I know why you won't let him drive anymore." Lincoln said with a small grin as he looked over at her.

"Oh he can drive if he wants to." She told him. "Just not my car."

"You expect him to want to drive that old Station Wagon his father owns?" Lincoln asked as they turned onto the street leading into Hyde Park.

"Why not?" She said with a shrug as she stopped the car. "He actually likes that car. He just doesn't wanna admit it."

"I'll be sure to ask him that when he's back at work." Lincoln told her.

As usual there were a number of other cars parked at the scene when they arrived, along with an ambulance and a few police officers that walked around the area. Astrid's car was parked amongst the other cars as well. Olivia and Lincoln got out of the car and started to walk towards the crime scene, both of them wearing their dark jackets with the yellow 'FBI' logo on the back. After they had gathered outside of the underground storage area and received an overview briefing from Broyles, the team went over to the gurneys where the bodies had been placed.

"We've got two bodies." Broyles told them as they opened the blue body bag. "Twelve year old boys."

"How many months has it been since they went missing?" Lincoln asked as he looked at the decomposed body in front of him.

"Not months. Hours." Broyles said, letting them know why this was a Fringe case. "Somewhere between 10 and 15 according to the rapports their families made when they didn't come home last night."

"Fascinating." Walter said quietly as he took a closer look at the body on the gurney in front of him. "This is a very advanced state of decomposition."

"Dr. Bishop." Broyles said as he looked over at him. "Any theories about cause of death?"

"Not without a proper and closer examination of the bodies." Walter told him.

"We'll have the bodies transferred to the lab as soon as possible." Broyles told them with a nod before he left them to continue with the investigation.

Meanwhile inside the underground chamber, Olivia and Lincoln were looking over the crime scene where the bodies were found a few hours earlier. The chamber used to be some sort of storage area but it had been empty and abandoned for a few years now.

"I think I got something." Lincoln said as he crouched down and pointed his flashlight at the ground. "It's a third set of sneaker treads leading in and then out. Size seven, eight maybe."

"Then we have potential witness." Astrid, who had come down to help them when Walter went with one of the bodies to the lab, said.

"Or another victim." Olivia suggested. "Even if there was another boy that got away, he could still be infected by whatever killed the other two."

"We need to find him fast." Lincoln said.

"Yeah, if he's alive." Olivia said quietly as she turned around and went outside, leaving both Astrid and Lincoln behind.

* * *

><p>A few hours later Olivia and Lincoln walked through the doors to the lab with the third young boy named Aaron Sneddon. The principal at the school where the boys went had told them about something one of the other children had told him; that he knew about the bullying that was going on against Aaron and that they had planned to go after him after school. They had found the young boy sitting alone in the busy school cafeteria, completely engrossed in his notebook drawings.<p>

As they entered the lab Olivia was surprised to find Peter standing next to Walter, presumably helping him with the autopsy on the corpse which was not that unusual. Both Astrid and Peter used to help a lot when it came to doing the autopsy. But it had only been three days since the explosion had occurred. The damage to the lab had been repaired in a day so that they would be able to continue their work as soon as possible but Peter still had a concussion. He was supposed to be lying down, resting to get better. He should not be back at work already.

And then there was the fact that they had kissed last night at the hospital and they had not seen each other since.

Olivia watched him for a few seconds as he handed Walter one of the medical instruments from the table before he turned around when he heard the sound of the door closing behind her. His eyes met hers, but instead of the hard and cold glare she thought she was going to get, his eyes were soft and understanding.

"Hey." He greeted them as he left Walter and walked over to them.

"Hi." She said as she tried not to look at him. "Shouldn't you be at home, resting?"

"I've been resting for three days. I'm bored." He said with a shrug.

"Well, we need all the help we can get on this one." Lincoln said, referring to the unnatural case they were working on. "Does your father have anything from the autopsy yet?"

"No he's…" Peter started as he looked over to where his father was standing, both his lab rock and face shield covered in blood. "Still on it."

"Okay, you fill him in on what's going on and I'll keep the kid company." Lincoln said and before Olivia had a chance to protest he had walked away, leaving her alone with Peter and the massive tension between the two of them.

"So what's up?" He said as they moved to stand in the doorway to the room where the young boy and Lincoln were.

"His name is Aaron Sneddon, he's ten years old." Olivia told him slowly. "He said it was pretty dark and he didn't see much after the boys chased him in to the tunnel."

"He didn't tell anyone what happened?" Peter asked with a slight frown. "His parents?"

"Well, he has no father and his mother is out of the country." She explained. "Aaron said that she's away a lot for work. He stays with a neighbor in their apartment complex."

"The mother leaves him at the neighbors when she's at work?" Peter said as he shook his head. "Good parenting."

"It's not an easy thing to do on your own, without the father." Olivia said slowly as she looked at the small child witting on the bench. "Rachel practically raised Ella on her own and she did a great job, but it was everything but easy."

"I would never have left." He said honestly. He knew that she knew, but he still felt the need to tell her. "So…"

"So…what?" She said as she looked up at him.

"What happened last night? Why did you leave?" He said as he tilted his head to the side and looked at her. "I mean, if you think that is was a mistake…"

"I don't know what I think." She admitted as she dropped her shoulders but kept her eyes trained on his. "I just wanted to move forward, past everything that's happened but…"

"But what?" He asked softly.

"Now I don't know what I want anymore." She told him honestly before she left alone as she walked over to the young boy.

"You like to draw? Me too." She asked softly as she sat down next to him on the bench. "Aaron we're going to have to get you checked out, to make sure that you're okay. Our friend Dr. Bishop is going to examine you."

"I don't like doctors." Aaron admitted quietly. "They scare me."

"Well you'll like Walter." She said with a smile. "There's nothing scary about him."

"Alright young man, let's get started." Walter said as he walked up, still dressed in the bloody lab rock and large black gloves. "Take off your shirt and hop on the table."

The young boy stared at Walter as he walked away before he turned around to look at Olivia, his eyes wide and filled with fear. Olivia looked up at Lincoln, not sure what to do. Walter just _had _to walk by dressed in autopsy attire that was covered in blood as soon as the boy told them that he was scared of doctors. That definitely did not help.

"Maybe he's a bit scary sometimes, but you'll like him." Olivia said softly as she smiled at him. "I promise."

"Okay." Aaron answered quietly, still quite anxious about going over to Walter.

"Good. Come on." Olivia said softly as she stood up and held out her hand for him to take, and he did.

Peter watched from the back of the lab as Olivia sat down and talked to the young child with a small smile on her lips. He watched as they child's eyes went wide when Walter walked by. But Olivia somehow managed to convince him that Walter was not as dangerous as he looked because he nodded and stood up. Peter swallowed hard as he watched the young boy place his small hand in hers. Olivia's hand was not much bigger than his. Olivia was much smaller and more petite than anyone would think. She just had the whole FBI agent shield around her which made her seem much bigger than she was, not physically of course.

When he watched her, memorized, as she led the small boy over to the table where Walter was going to examine him. She looked genuinely happy. He had not seen her like that since before she had her miscarriage. It hurt. It was excruciatingly painful to watch the woman he loved walk hand in hand with a small child when he knew that they could have had that in a few years if things had gone differently. Olivia would have been an amazing mother. He had no doubts about that fact.

He decided to stay in the background for a few minutes, to let Olivia handle the situation by herself since she was doing fine.

"You doing okay?" Lincoln asked as he walked up and stood by his side, both of them watching the other three.

"Yeah, just thought I'd let her do this." Peter told him with a nod.

"She's good with kids." Lincoln said slowly.

"Yeah, she is." Peter said as he smiled to himself

"Walter needs the second corpse to see if one of the boys was a carrier of whatever it was that infected them." Olivia said as she walked up to them a few minutes later. "He doesn't have any theories beyond vampires at the moment."

"So we need to go to the morgue then?" Lincoln asked.

"Yes. Walter will look after Aaron while we're gone." She said.

"I'll go with you." Peter said as he looked at her.

"Peter you have a concussion." She protested. "You shouldn't even be out of bed."

"But I am." He said. "And I might as well help when I can. I'm fine."

"Okay then." Lincoln intervened, feeling the tension between the two of them. "Let's go then.

* * *

><p>The trio walked down the hallway that led to the morgue where the other corpse had been placed earlier during the day. Olivia was not too happy about the fact that Peter was going with them, not only because he was still not well enough to be back at work, but because she did not want him to start to pressure on her about what had happened between them.<p>

Olivia knew what she wanted. She wanted everything to go back to how it used to be. She wanted to be with Peter like they used to. The weird tension filled, awkward relationship they had now was just ridiculous. Olivia knew that he still had feelings for her, it was pretty obvious. He could read her and she could read him. They understood each other better than anything else. And she wanted him back.

"Astrid?" Olivia said as she answered her phone when it rang.

"_Are you at the morgue?"_ She asked quickly.

"Yeah, we're just heading to the elevator now, why?" Olivia told her as she looked over at Peter and Lincoln.

"_Listen, you have got to evacuate the room, get the body from the tunnel locked down_." Astrid told her firmly.

"What?" Olivia asked confusedly.

"_It's going to explode_." Astrid said and Olivia immediately started to run towards the stairwell. She could hear both Peter and Lincoln running after her down the hallway and then up the stairs. None of them said anything, they did not ask what was happening or who it was that had called. They simply followed her as she ran towards the morgue.

They were too late. They arrived in time to see the explosion through the safety glass as the room filled with airborne spores that covered the small window on the door to the autopsy room. Olivia quickly took a few steps forward and opened the blinds on the window. They watched as the two doctors tried to breathe inside the room. Lincoln was just about to rush over and open the door but Peter stopped him.

"What are you doing? We got to get them-." He said but Peter did not let go.

"We can't open that door." Olivia said firmly as she looked over at them. "We need to get a team in here and lock down the area."

"We can't just leave them to die!" Lincoln protested.

"They're already dead." Peter told him as he let go of his arm.

It did not take long for the Fringe response unit to arrive to the area around the morgue which was now locked-down. After a brief explanation of what happened, they all put on the bio-hazard suits that the response unit had brought for them. They needed to get inside that room to see what it was that they were up against.

Once the team managed to get the door open, they went inside. The room already had long dark tendrils along the walls and basically every other surface as well. Olivia was the first one to go inside, as usual, with Peter and Lincoln following closely behind as she walked around the room. The coroner and his assistant were both dead, dark tendrils covering their bodies like ivy on an old building.

"Walter." Peter said into the built-it microphone that all the suits had. Walter and Astrid were listening in from the lab so that they could assist them. "Do you have any idea what this thing could be?"

"_Clearly not."_ Walter said. "_I believe that it may be a genetically mutated cordyceps fungi with the capacity of hyper accelerated growth and absorption qualities, which explains the rapid decomposition of the bodies."_

"Walter what's cordyceps fungi?" Olivia asked.

"_Species capable of releasing neurotoxins to paralyze the host_." Walter explained. "_Usually an insect so that the fungi can feed."_

"A couple of these bad boys are making their way down the sink." Lincoln said as he watched the tendrils move slowly in the sink.

"_Most likely seeking more water and nutrients which shows a strong impulse to expand the reach as far as possible_." Walter said somewhat enthusiastically.

"Walter, how do we kill these things?" Peter asked him.

"_As for the great many molds and fungi, a strong of UV light or intense heat should effectively eradicate them_." Walter told them.

"Agent Mase this is agent Lincoln Lee." Lincoln said into his microphone. "We're going to need high intensity UV lamps in here, as many as you can find."

"What's wrong?" Peter asked as he noticed the frown on Olivia's face as she looked around.

"Based on the boys' remains, the fungus colony at the tunnel is probably much bigger than what we have here." Olivia told him. "I'm not convinced that UV is the most efficient way to destroy it."

"You have something else in mind?" Peter asked as he looked at her.

"I'm thinking flame throwers." Olivia said.

* * *

><p>Only half an hour later, Peter, Olivia and Lincoln entered the underground chamber in Hyde Park once again. Although this time they are there to eliminate the large fungal colony that covered almost every surface in front of them. Some odd drawings highlighted a few of the tendril arms of the mold on the wall, as if a child with sidewalk chalk had been there to decorate. But once the floodlights went on, they could see how big the organism actually was. Olivia and Peter followed as Lincoln walked closer to the wall.<p>

"What do you see?" Olivia asked curiously.

"I need the handheld flood over here." Lincoln said loudly, not turning around from the large crack in the wall that they were currently inspecting. "There's more of it back here, a lot more. Some of it's growing down through some grating. Do we know what's under here?"

All of the sudden the large bulbs on the floodlights exploded because of a few tendrils made their way up the tripod that was holding the floodlights. They quickly backed away from the wall, afraid of what the mutated fungi would do next. Olivia did not see where she was going when she took a few steps but she suddenly found herself right in front of Peter, her back against his chest. She felt his arm grab her upper arm protectively.

"Burn it." She ordered firmly. "Burn it all."

And they did.

Until her phone rang.

"Walter?" She asked as she took a few steps back and answered it.

"_Stop what you're doing_." He told her quickly.

"Say it again." Olivia said as she pressed a hand to her other ear in order to hear what Walter was telling her.

"_I said stop it_!" Walter said loudly. "_You're killing the boy_."

"Stop what you're doing!" Olivia shouted as she entered the chamber again.

"Olivia, what's going on?" Peter asked as he and Lincoln looked at her with questioning eyes.

"I don't know how, but we're hurting the boy." She told them. "He's somehow linked to the fungus and what we're doing to it is hurting him as well."

"Let's just go to the lab and let Walter explain." Peter suggested.

* * *

><p>"My initial hypothesis was entirely wrong." Walter said as they all gathered around the incubator where one of the bodies had exploded a few hours earlier during the day, just as the one in the morgue.<p>

"Great." Peter muttered sarcastically.

"These are not colonies of fungi. I now believe that…that this is a single organism. One with rapidly evolving communication skills enabling it to from a psychic bond with the boy." Walter explained. "You see these? I believe that each of these fungal masses is the equivalent to a neuron, a brain cell, and these tendrils are linking them together. The organism is a vast neural network."

"Wait, you're telling me that this whole thing, all of it, is one giant brain?" Lincoln asked in disbelief.

"That's exactly what I'm saying!" Walter confirmed happily. "Gus is a growing, evolving mind."

"Gus?" Olivia asked with a small grin.

"Well I thought that since it's a single living entity, that perhaps we should name it for the sake of clarity." Walter explained.

Walter continued to explain the things that he had found out about _Gus_ and the psychic bond with Aaron for a few minutes before Olivia and Lincoln left the lab to go and try to destroy the organism. Peter stayed in the lab with Walter and Astrid to help them look after the young boy, who was now running a high fever and slipping in and out of consciousness. Only an hour later, he got the call from Olivia saying that they did it.

Peter was relieved that this case was now over, in fact he was more than relieved. For Olivia's sake, he was glad that it was over. He had seen the way this case had affected her. He had seen the sadness in her eyes whenever she glanced at the young boy. It had been hard on him as well, seeing her talk softly to the child. But it was over now.

* * *

><p>Olivia stood outside one of the small cinemas in Cambridge, waiting for Peter and Lincoln to arrive. It was late, almost midnight, and she didn't really know why she had agreed on going with them. She blamed Peter for it. She blamed that irresistible smile that he had given her, the one that almost made her legs give out and submit to everything he said. No matter how cliché it sounded, everything literally went blank when he smiled at her. If someone would have told her four years ago that she would be head over heels in love with a man with a con man who had a recorded IQ of 190, she would have laughed at them.<p>

After a few more minutes of shivering outside in the cold wind, Olivia spotted Lincoln's familiar car stop by the curb a few meters from where she was standing. She watched as both Lincoln and Peter exited the car and made their way towards her. Lincoln was dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a light brown jacket. He looked really good. But the man next to him almost took her breath away. Peter looked incredible in his light blue jeans along with a white cardigan which she presumed was new since she had never seen him in it before. As usual, he had his dark pea coat as protection against the cold wind. His short curly hair was slightly tousled, just the way she liked it and for a second she could not stop staring at him as they walked up.

"Hey, sorry we're late." Peter said as they stopped in front of her. "Have you been here long?"

"No, just a few minutes." She said, though by a few minutes she meant more like twenty.

"Good." He answered with a smile. "Shall we?"

"Yeah, sure." She said as they all went inside.

There were not a lot of people inside, which was not that surprising since it was about midnight and people were probably at home sleeping, but that only made it better. Olivia did not really like crowded places where everyone was talking so loud that it was impossible to even hear your own thoughts. Noisy people were annoying, especially at night when you were tired, when all the lights became too bright and your ears were more sensitive to loud noises. Not that that was a problem right now. As Peter walked over to the front desk to buy their movie tickets, Olivia excused herself and went to find the bathroom.

When she came back outside, Peter and Lincoln were waiting for her, drinks and two large paper bowl filled with yellow popcorn in them.

"You buy me a drink but no popcorn?" She said as with a grin as she walked up to them.

"I thought we'd share." Peter said as he handed her one of the sodas he was holding. "Unless you want your own."

"No, it's fine." She assured him with a small smile.

"Okay then, let's go inside." Lincoln said with a nod.

And they did. Peter handed the tickets to the young theater worker outside the door before they went inside the dimly lit room and sat down. Peter sat in the middle so that he and Olivia could share their popcorn, but also because it would have been somewhat awkward otherwise. As Olivia looked around the theater, she noticed that there were only about five other people there. There was one couple a few rows in front of them, one couple in the corner and then an old lady sitting in the back. And then of course, there was herself and her two partners. She wondered how weird it must look that she was out in the middle of the night with two guys. Not that she cared anyhow.

Almost thirty-seven minutes later, Olivia was not focusing on the movie _at all_. She stared at the screen in front of her, but her mind did not register what was happening. Right now, she had the same memory span as a goldfish, which was about three seconds. Her heart was beating rapidly inside her chest as she tried to focus on her breathing instead of the fact that her hand was locked in Peter's, his thumb rubbing soft circles on her skin.

It had started out completely normal. They watched the movie, drank their sodas and ate their popcorn in silence. Occasionally she felt his hand brush against hers as they both reached for some popcorn at the same time. Olivia had placed her arm on the armrest between them, her hand resting next to Peter's and their pinkies touching. About three square centimeters of her skin was pressed lightly against his. It was nothing. And yet, it was everything. Even the tiniest feel of his warm skin against hers made her heart beat twice as fast as normal.

At first neither of them had done anything; they just continued to watch the movie. But then she had felt his hand move slightly over hers, so that his fingers matched hers. His left hand above her right hand as he started to move his thumb back and forth over her knuckles lightly. Olivia felt like she was on her first date again, like she was about to get her first kiss. She was _that_ nervous. Though that did not stop her from placing her head against his shoulder as she gave his hand a small squeeze, reassuring him that she was okay with what was happening. Not that she had any idea what it was. But this was Peter and she did not care.

When she felt him turn his head towards her and his warm lips brushed against her temple, she almost died and went to heaven. She didn't, though she could not hide her reaction to his touch as she closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath. Peter seemed to notice the reaction he had on her because she felt him start to press feather light kisses against her temple and along her hairline. His lips were soft and warm against her skin as they moved across her forehead and almost down to her ear. Peter obviously was not interested in the movie anymore, not that she minded anyway. She did feel a little bad for Lincoln though and she hoped that he would not notice anything, but when Peter slowly dragged his lips firmer against her temple all thoughts simply flew away to some other place. God, she just wanted to drag him away, rip his clothes of and have her way with him.

The movie ended far too soon.

"Well I have to say, I liked this movie more than the first one." Lincoln commented when they stopped outside the cinema, where it was even colder than before which made Olivia miss the warmth of Peter's lips even more.

"I concur." Peter said with a grin as he repeated Sherlock Holmes' line from one of the scenes in the movie they had just seen, or well, some of it at least.

"You need a ride home?" Lincoln asked.

"No it's fine, Olivia offered." Peter told him, which made Olivia snap her head up and look at him. She had never offered to drive him home tonight.

"Okay, well, I'll see you guys tomorrow." Lincoln said with a small smirk as he turned around and went to his car.

"So where's your car? I'm freezing." Peter said nonchalantly and all she could do was nod in the direction of her car before she followed him. "I'll drive."

"What? Why?" She asked with a frown.

"I want to show you something." He told her simply. Olivia reluctantly handed him her car keys and they got inside.

Olivia glanced at him for the fourth time in two minutes. She could not help it. After their little moment or whatever at the cinema, she could not help herself. His eyes were focused on the road in front of them, his hands gripping the steering wheel quite harder than he had to. Something was off. As she looked closer Olivia noticed how tightly his jaw was set and how his breathing seemed more shallow than ususal. She frowned. He seemed almost angry.

"What's wrong?" She asked slowly.

"Nothing's wrong." He said firmly.

"Peter." She said as she placed her hand on his arm.

He hit the brakes on the car instantly, swerved to the right and then he stopped. Everything stopped moving for a second. But then he quickly reached over and placed his hand on her cheek and pressed his lips against her. It was not a soft and sweet kiss. It was hard and filled with months of frustration, want and passion that never went away.

Olivia responded immediately as she turned towards him in her seat, her lips not leaving his for even a second. His other hand found its way into her hair and he tugged slightly as she tilted her head more upwards to him. Olivia pressed her hand against his chest and grasped the collar of the soft cardigan as her other hand wrapped around his neck and tugged on his hair on the back of his head with a little force. When they reluctantly pulled away for air, Olivia kept her eyes closed as she leaned her forehead against his and tried to breathe.

"I've wanted to do that all night." He whispered and stroked her cheek softly as Olivia opened her eyes and met his.

That was all it took for her to pull him closer again and crush her lips against his once again. After a few seconds, Peter moved his lips to her neck and started to press kisses below her ear and all the way down to her collarbone. They were still separated by the gap between their two seats and the gear box, but Olivia was leaning over as far as she could, one of her hands pressed against the seat to keep her from slipping as Peter continued to suck on her neck. By the time he started to remove her dark jacket, she was practically on his lap. Somehow he managed to get his own coat off without her even noticing until she opened her eyes and looked up at him.

His eyes matched hers, almost black with desire as they stared at each other, both of them breathing heavily. This was not just a make out session anymore. They needed more than that.

Eventually they made their way into the backseat of the car as Peter literally pulled her with him, fumbling around for a second so that Olivia was pressed against the cushion of the seats with him on top. He looked into her eyes for signs of hesitation, but there was nothing more than love and desire in the green eyes that stared back at him. So he leaned down and pressed his lips against her once again.

This was what she wanted. She wanted Peter back. And she finally had him.

_I just want to feel real love, feel the home that I live in..._

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN:<strong> **Thank you so much for the reviews on the last chapter!  
>Happy Fringe-day for all of you that get to watch the episode tonight!<br>I'm incredibly jealous since I have to wait until Saturday morning, because you know I live in the middle of nowhere..aka Sweden (;  
><strong>__  
><strong>Anyway, the chapter followed 4x03 as you probably noticed and I hope you liked it (:<br>**_


	10. Novation And Breakfast In Bed

Olivia awoke to the feeling of someone pressing soft kisses to the back of her neck and just below her right ear, occasionally stopping to suck gently on her pulse point. It took her a few seconds to realize that she was in her own bed, with Peter. His arm was wrapped around her waist so that her back was pressed against his hard chest protectively. Apparently he noticed that she was waking up because she felt him smile against her neck. Olivia opened her eyes slowly and smiled as she tilted her head towards Peter, who was propped up on his elbow next to her. He smiled as he leaned forward and kissed her lips softly.

"Good morning." He whispered against her lips.

"Hi." Olivia said softly as she looked up at him.

"No work today, right?" He asked slowly.

"No, not unless something comes up." She told him as she brought a hand to his cheek.

Peter gave her a soft smile before he leaned down to press his lips against hers once again as his arm tightened around her waist, pulling her even closer to his body than she already was. He was lying on his side now, almost above her as he continued to kiss her lips and neck. Olivia let out a soft sigh as she felt him move his hand up under the shirt she was wearing to stroke the bare skin underneath it as he nuzzled his head in the crook of her neck. She wrapped one arm around his neck and ran her hand through his sleep tousled hair whilst her other hand rested on his lower back as she pressed her lips against his once again.

"I thought we said this wasn't going to happen again." Olivia said a while later as she rested her head on his chest, drawing small circles on his damp skin.

"Yeah. But it keeps happening." Peter said with a grin as he stroked her hair, but when she did not say anything else, he frowned slightly. "Is that a bad thing?"

"No, I just…" She said slowly as her hand stilled and she looked up at him. "It's not a bad thing."

"Okay." He said slowly, not pressing further though he knew that there was something else. "You hungry?"

"A bit." She answered with a smile.

"Stay right here." Peter said softly as he gave her a quick kiss before he got out from under the warm covers and left the bed. "I'll be right back."

Olivia grinned as she watched him leave her bedroom and turn towards the kitchen, wearing nothing but a pair of black boxers much to her happiness. Peter walking around half naked in her apartment was something she did not mind, not at all. In fact, she absolutely loved it. But she could not help to wonder what they were going to do about their situation.

_They had agreed that it was only a onetime thing and it was not going to happen again. But one time in the back of her car was not enough. Not for either one of them. One time was never enough. Once they gave in and let themselves feel the affection and comfort the other provided, nothing could stop their instincts from taking over, or maybe it was just the feelings they had. Somehow that one time in her car led to several more times, and not only in the back of either of their cars. _

_After their steamy moment in the backseat that night, Peter had driven her home without saying a single word until they arrived outside her apartment a few minutes later. When he had asked her what this meant, Olivia did not have an answer to give him. He had told her that it did not have to mean anything if she did not want to, that it had only been a moment of weakness and they both needed to have some fun. _Fun?_ She'd asked with raised eyebrows as she leaned against the doorway to her apartment. It sure as hell had been. Fun was not the word she would have used to describe their backseat adventure, unbelievable was more accurate. He had smirked at her, teased her about it. But in the end, they agreed that it was only a onetime thing that would not happen again. _

_That agreement only lasted about nineteen hours before she was pushed against the wall in one of the offices in the back of the lab as Peter's lips found her neck and her hands grasped his hair roughly. The looks they had been giving each other all day had been enough to make both of them want more than one time. And so she let him push her back harder against the wall as she kissed him back with as much passion and desire as he was giving her. The lab at Harvard was not a new place for them, neither was the backseats of their cars. They had been rather adventurous when they were together; both of them loved the excitement of having sex outside as much as they loved slow lovemaking in bed right before they fell asleep or at the break of dawn. _

Olivia found herself almost blushing at the thoughts, or in fact memories of just _how_ adventurous they had actually been when they were together. Both of them were stubborn and somewhat spontaneous, and maybe that was a bit bad in some situations but when it involved only the two of them, it was two very good qualities. Being spontaneous often led them to the bathroom in the bar they were in, a desk or wall in the lab, and sometimes even outside in some empty alley on the way home from their regular bar. However, last night had been he first time they had gone to her apartment since they started their new…thing. Olivia did not know what to call it yet, because it was not really a relationship but not just sex either, there was definitely feelings involved.

"_Peter we can't do this here." Olivia said with a small laugh as he nuzzled his face in the space where her neck met her shoulder, right above her collarbone. "Stop that."_

"_Why?" He mumbled, his voice muffled by her skin. _

"_Because Lincoln is still here." She told him as she glanced over his shoulder at the door that led out into the lab. _

"_Then he's in for one hell of a show." Peter said as he unbuttoned the top two buttons on the white shirt she was wearing and started to trail kiss down to the valley between her breasts as his hands held onto her hips, and no matter how good he was making her feel, how much she really wanted to let him continue his wonderful magic, this was not the place or time. _

"_Peter, stop." She whispered as she pulled his head back up by tugging on his hair. "Not here."_

"_Fine." He said with a small grin as he pulled his head away from her body without taking a step back. "Come on, I'll drive you home."_

"_Are you sure that you're comfortable enough to drive right now?" Olivia asked with a smirk as she glanced down at his jeans briefly before meeting his eyes again. _

"_Comfortable no, but I'll manage." He said as he grinned at her before stepping back. "Unless you're offering to do something about it."_

"_Take me home and I'll think about it." She teased as she grabbed her jacket from the floor where it had been dropped only a few minutes earlier. _

"_Okay then." Peter answered as he opened the door and waited for her to follow him out the door without Lincoln noticing. _

_Peter had indeed managed to drive them home to her apartment safely and for the first time in months he had entered her apartment with her. And after a few shots of whiskey he found himself in her bed once again, the same bed that they had spent hours in together. Olivia had expected him to leave sometime after or during the night when she was asleep, but he had stayed, and he was still there when she woke up. _

When Peter walked back into the room she could not help but smile at him as he stopped next to her side of the bed to place a large breakfast tray on her lap. He gave her a soft kiss before he sat down next to her and leaned his back against the headboard, his shoulder pressed against hers. Olivia almost did not believe what she was seeing. The tray had two plates with pancakes with syrup and fresh fruit, a small can with whipped cream and two glasses filled with what she presumed to be orange juice.

"This looks _amazing_." She told him with a smile. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Peter said as he turned his head to the side and in to kiss her softly.

"Where did you get all of this?" Olivia asked as she looked at the tray in her lap.

"The supermarket around the corner actually has more than coffee and toast you know." He said with a grin as he grabbed his pancakes. "I went out before you woke up."

"_You_ got out of bed before six thirty in the morning to go to the store and buy breakfast?" Olivia said as she looked at him with raised brows.

"Is that so hard to believe?" Peter said as he looked at her.

"I don't think I've ever seen you out of bed this early before." She said as she took a piece of her pancake. "At least not without using force."

"Yeah, I remember you pushing me out of bed just to make you coffee." He said with a grin.

Olivia smiled at the memory of all the early mornings when she had been too tired to leave the warm comfortable bed to get coffee so instead she had forced Peter out of bed, claiming that she he was always warm no matter how cold it was. It had been a lousy excuse but he had usually done it anyway, just because he loved her. At least that was what he had told her when she teased him about being afraid of her.

"What's on your mind?" He asked slowly.

"Nothing, I just…" She said as she turned her head to look at him. "What are we doing?"

"I don't know. Each other I guess?" He said with a smirk.

"Peter!" She said as she slapped his shoulder lightly.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist." He said as he looked at her. "Look, I know we said this wasn't gonna happen anymore but I just can't stop."

"Then don't." Olivia said as she looked into his eyes.

"I won't." He said softly as he leaned forward kissed her. "Hmm you taste like syrup."

"Maybe because I've just eaten pancakes _with_ syrup." She said against his lips.

"Maybe." He whispered as he pulled back from her lips.

Olivia watched as he turned slightly towards her and reached for the small bowl of fruit on the breakfast tray, his eyes sparkling with mischief as he picked up a red strawberry and held it in front of her mouth with a grin. Olivia looked into his eyes as she slowly leaned forward and took a small bite of the juicy strawberry without breaking eye contact with him, not even for a second.

"Good?" He asked quietly as he watched her nod slowly before giving her the rest of the fruit. "You want more?"

"More of what?" Olivia said slowly as she licked her lips and looked at him.

"This." He whispered as he leaned forward and watched her eyes close, waiting for his lips to meet hers. But instead of doing just that, Peter grabbed the can of whipped cream and quickly sprayed a small amount of the white fluffy substance on her awaiting lips. He could not help to grin at her startled expression when she realized what he had done, but instead of letting her wipe the whipped cream off herself, Peter grinned and brought his mouth to hers.

"Seriously Peter, how old are you?" Olivia asked a while later as she stood next to him by the sink in her bathroom, trying to wipe the whipped cream off her face and out of her messy hair.

"What?" He said innocently as he looked at her in the mirror above the sink, his lips curved into a small grin that almost made him look like the not so innocent teenager she suspected that he had been all those years ago. "You can't tell me that you didn't think this was fun, 'cause I know you did."

"You're impossible." She said as she turned around and stepped into the shower cabin.

"Do you want some company?" Peter asked, already on his way to remove his boxers and step inside after her.

"Oh no you don't." Olivia told him as she shook her head and stopped him by placing her hand firmly on his chest. "You've had enough fun for now."

"I can never get enough of you baby." He said with a laugh as he watched her close the shower door in his face.

"Oh that's sweet." She said sarcastically, her voice barely audible through the water running. "Your razor is still under the sink by the way."

"Is that a hint? You don't like the scruff?" He said as he opened the cabinet beneath the sink.

Olivia did not answer him, probably ignoring his question or she simply had not heard him through the sound of the water running, he was not entirely sure. As Peter glanced at the shower cabin through the mirror, he could see the silhouette of her body even through the foggy glass doors. He wanted so badly to open those doors and step inside the steam filled air with her, not to press her against the tiles or bend her over to have his way with her, but to kiss her softly as he washed her blond hair and told her that he loved her more than anything else in the world. Because he really did. He wanted to tell her that he still loved as much as before, if not even more, but a small voice in the back of his head told him not to.

He knew that Olivia still had feelings for him, there was no doubt about that fact, but Peter also knew that he could not move to fast forward if he wanted to keep her this time. That was the only reason why he did not tell her those three small, yet so meaningful words that he truly wanted to tell her. He just could not take the risk of losing her. There were not many things in his life that were important to him, but the family he had now, meant everything to him. His father, Astrid and Olivia. They were all that mattered to him.

As he opened the cabinet to grab the old razor and shaving cream he had kept there when they were together. He was slightly surprised that she had not thrown it out along with all of the other things he still had in her apartment, such as his toothbrush, books and even some of his clothes. Maybe she never really had given up on them either, he certainly never had. Ever since the day he had left her, Peter had only had one thing on his mind and that was how he was going to get Olivia back. Now he was in her bathroom, rubbing shaving cream across his cheeks and neck just like before. Whatever _this_ was, it was definitely progress.

Just as he ran the sharp blade down from his ear to his chin one last time, Peter heard Olivia turn off the shower faucets. He could see Olivia move inside the shower cabin as he walked over to the side rack and grabbed a fluffy white towel. When she opened the doors he cocked his head to the side and smiled as he held up the towel in front of her, waiting for her to take a step outside the shower so that he could wrap the white fluffy towel around her dripping body. It was almost instinctive for him to do this to her, _for her_, to take care of her and make her feel warm and protected when she was near him. It had become one of those natural habits when they used to live together, and apparently it is true, old habits die hard.

"Thank you." Olivia said with a smile as he wrapped the soft towel around her and looked at her.

"Is there any hot water left?" He asked with a playful smile as she moved past him and went towards the bedroom.

"Maybe a little." She told him as she disappeared into the other room, leaving him to shower alone.

Peter closed the glass doors behind him as he turned on the hot water and let the heavy drops run down the length of his naked body. He closed his eyes and let the water take him over, filling his ears and blocking every noise except for the sound of the water running through the pipes and out through the shower head before hitting the tiles on the floor. After a few moments of relaxing under the spray of hot water, he reached for the shampoo bottle and placed a small amount in his palm before running it through his short hair. He watched the foam run down from his chest to his stomach and all the way down to the drain as he grabbed the shower gel of the rack.

He used both Olivia's shampoo and shower gel which meant that he would most likely smell like a mixture of flowers and coconut when he was done. Not that he minded anyway. He loved her smell. It was almost intoxicating for him to breathe when he was in the same room as her. He could not stand to be without her, could not resist being close to her. She was his personal drug and he was definitely an addict.

When he emerged from the hot shower cabin a few minutes later, a towel wrapped loosely around his waist as he dried his hair with another one, he found Olivia leaning against the doorway. She was dressed in her usual work outfit, a pair of slacks and a black jacket over her white shirt, with her badge and gun placed in the holster at her waist. Peter distinctively remembered that she had told him that there was no work today, it was her day off and yet, she looked ready for work.

"I thought you said no work today?" He said with a frown.

"Something came up." She said simply. "They need us so get ready. We leave in five."

"Oh come on." He said with a groan.

* * *

><p>A short time later, Olivia and Peter stood in the middle of the Situation room at the federal building with Broyles and Lincoln. Peter was currently typing away on the giant computer he had been allowed to use in order to figure out how to unlock the specific encryption on the broadcast signal that the shape shifters used to broadcast coordinates of their position.<p>

Olivia and Peter had arrived at the crime scene in Hillsdale where they found Lincoln waiting for them on the front porch to the victim's house. Broyles had already left when they got there so Lincoln had been the one to brief them on why they were brought in on their day off, and to a robbery-homicide scene of all places. Apparently ever since he lost his previous partner, Lincoln had been keeping an eye out for any cases involving victims whose skin had been reported as translucent. This had been reported one of those cases. The dead woman and her boyfriend inside the house had both had the translucent skin as the other victims they had found.

Lincoln had continued to explain what they were dealing with this time as they went inside the house whilst Peter stayed outside, waiting for Astrid and Walter to arrive. After he had finished his shower and gotten dressed, Peter had called Astrid and asked her if she could pick up Walter at the house before she went to the crime scene in Hillsdale, claiming that he had gone out for a morning run with Olivia. It had been a bad excuse, and Olivia would almost certainly kill him if she found out that he had told Astrid that they had been spending time together, but it had worked and that was all he cared about at that moment.

A while later, when they had finished processing the crime scene, Olivia had gone with Lincoln to Massive Dynamic to ask Nina Sharp a few questions that could help them with the current case whilst Peter had decided to join Walter and Astrid in the lab instead. He knew Olivia probably needed at least an hour away from him, not that he thought she wanted to be without him, but because he knew that Olivia needed time to think. She needed time to think about their sort of 'relationship', _without_ him present. That is, until she called him and asked her to meet her at the FBI to work on the encryption.

"How long is this gonna take?" Broyles asked as they stood by and watched Peter working on the computer in the Situation Room.

"Not long at all." Peter answered as he looked at the screen.

"Those are coordinates." Olivia pointed out as she walked over to him and watched the numbers on the screen.

"To what?" Broyles said with a slight frown.

"Can you pull up a map of the city?" Peter asked. "So what does luxury cars and shapeshifters have in common? They both have lojack systems apparently."

"You're saying these things have tracking devices?" Lincoln asked as he looked over at him.

"Yeah, I think whoever is in charge wants to keep an eye on his agents." Peter told him with a nod. "That's the one you guys have here, the one we just hooked up. But there are actually two different sets of coordinates being broadcasted."

"That's by the Port." Lincoln said as the second set of number came up on the screen.

"I think you just found our shape shifter." Broyles said firmly.

"For the time being." Peter told him. "But whoever is monitoring that network is gonna know that I breached, they can shut down our access at any time."

"We should move." Olivia said as she moved towards the exit, a handful of agents following her lead, including Lincoln and Peter.

And they did. It was only a matter of minutes before they were all outside the warehouse, dressed in the regular bulletproof vests with the yellow FBI logo on both sides. Usually Peter did not go with them when they were about to storm a building, but somehow he had ended up with both a flak jacket and a gun. Olivia had given him a small smirk as she took in his appearance, but then she quickly snapped into her 'FBI-mode' as Peter called it.

It did not take them long to break down the door and get inside the large warehouse, only to be ambushed and shot at. Peter quickly moved behind some old lockers to hide from the bullets flying through the room as he saw Olivia and Lincoln doing the same thing. He had been through a certain number of gun battles in his life, but it was always as hard. If he had to be honest, Peter actually hated guns. And since he was not really a good shot, he had let Olivia and Lincoln handle the situation.

The woman, or shape shifter, had escaped back into the room she had emerged from only a few seconds earlier and Olivia gave them a nod to follow. They moved quickly behind the empty lockers until they entered the room, which was apparently some sort of lab, and found the scientist they had been looking for on the floor in front of them. Lincoln lowered his gun and quickly rushed forwards when he realized that the shape shifter was not in the room anymore.

"I got her." Olivia reassured him as she went after the shape shifter with Peter.

"She's up there." Peter said as he looked up and saw the woman running to the upper levels of the warehouse.

"Come on." Olivia said as she started to running up the stairs.

"_She's heading for the roof_." An agent said through the radio Olivia had with her.

"This way." Olivia told him as they moved through the abandoned rooms in the warehouse until they found a door that led out onto the roof.

"Olivia." Peter said firmly as he nodded towards the body lying a few meters in front of them.

"This is agent Dunham." She said into her radio as she sat down next to the wounded agent in front of her. "Agent Warrick is down. We need paramedics on the roof, now."

"She jumped." The wounded agent, named Warrick, told them as he looked over to the side of the building.

Olivia quickly stood up and walked over to the side that faced Boston's inner Harbor to look down at the water, where a large cloud of air bubbles were surfacing from the deep, dark water in one of the boat slips. She felt someone move up behind her and when she looked up, she was not surprised to find Peter standing there. He looked slightly concerned, though he always looked like that whenever he came with her to these things.

"You okay?" She asked him as she placed her hand on his arm gently. The paramedics were already making their way over to the wounded agent and soon the whole roof was filled with agents, but they did not care about them at all. They only focused on each other.

"Yeah I'm good." He reassured her as he grabbed her hand and looked at her. "But I think I'm gonna skip the next gunfight."

"Yeah, why is that?" Olivia asked him with a small smile.

"Not really my thing." He said as he shrugged.

"No?" She said as she looked at him. "What's your thing then?"

"Well, you know…There is actually one thing that I would like to do right now." He said as he smiled at her.

"Yeah, and what's that?" Olivia asked with a small grin as she looked up at him.

"Close your eyes." He said slowly as he squeezed her hand gently and watched as she did what he said, before he leaned down to whisper in her ear. "I still love you Olivia, more than anything."

_It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away..._

* * *

><p><em>AN: First of all I just want to thank every single one of you who follows this story, add it to your favorite story and give me so incredibly nice reviews!<br>It really, really means a lot to me. _

_The chapter followed 'Novation' a bit as you probably noticed,  
>and I'm actually planning on following the story line of season 4, but of course, I'll do it my way so don't worry about Olivia forgetting Peter ;)<br>If you have anything thoughts or ideas of anything you would like to happen, let me know, though I can't promise that it will. _

_Hope you are having an amazing holiday! (: _


	11. And Those We've Left Behind Part I

When Peter woke up, he was alone. He was not in his own bed. He was not even in the house he shared with Walter. This bed was hard and uncomfortable, unlike Olivia's soft bed, but he was not in her apartment either. There was no Olivia sleeping peacefully in his arms, or anywhere else on the bed for that matter. The room was almost totally dark, only a small beam of light came through a door on the other end of the room he was in. He took a breath and sat up slowly, his eyes scanning the dark room in hope of figuring out where he was. However, it did not take him that long to realize that other than the bed he was on, there was nothing more than a table and two chairs in the room.

The grey walls were so familiar and Peter realized that he had been there before. It was one of the holding rooms at the federal building, the room where they usually kept the suspects when they were working on a case. He had been there more than a thousand times over the past three years, but never like this. He had interrogated many suspects with Olivia and Charlie, even a few with Lincoln, but he had never been locked inside the doors to a holding room himself. All of a sudden the door opened and he had to close his eyes to avoid the bright light coming from the lights in the ceiling outside the holding room. He was not surprised to find Olivia standing in the doorway, clad in her typical work outfit and her hair pulled up into the usual ponytail behind her head, but still, it was not her. The Olivia that stood in the doorway, only a few meters away from where he sat, was not the Olivia that he knew. It was not the woman he had spent the last four years of his life with. It was not _his _Olivia.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up." She said firmly as she looked at him.

"It's alright. I was already awake." Peter heard himself answer. He had no idea what was happening. Everything felt somewhat fuzzy, as if though he was dreaming, but still not. It was like he was watching himself doing and saying things, like someone else was controlling his body and mind, almost as if he was a marionette controlled by a manipulator.

"There's something going on." The woman that looked exactly like his Olivia, but was not her, told him as she stepped inside the room and placed a bag on the table in front of him. "And we think it has something to do with you, with your appearance here."

"Okay." Peter once again heard himself answer without control. _What has it got to do with me? Appearance where? Who are you? Where am I? _Those were the things that he wanted to say, wanted to ask her about, not just a simple okay. Because none of this was okay, not even close, but instead he found himself asking her what she meant. "What kind of something?"

"We're not sure, but we think it has to do with time." Her voice was getting quieter for each word, until everything was completely silent and the room was once again entirely dark.

He felt lightheaded, like he was about to faint, and he had to close his eyes to try and make the room stop spinning around him in order to prevent the nausea from creeping up. He could not feel anything but the anxiety that was squeezing his chest tighter and tighter with each breath that he desperately tried to take. Inhale and exhale. Two of the many things that you never really had to think about doing, your body did the work for you. It was two of the simplest things to do, but in this moment Peter could not get his body to do anything.

His entire body was rigid, his muscles shaking from the effort of trying to get enough air into his lungs so that he would not faint. _Peter, _a familiar voice said somewhere near, but he could not distinguish from who or where it was coming from. He was trapped on the top of a steep cliff in the twilight between unconscious and awake, not sure if he wanted to fall over or stay balancing for a while longer. _Peter. _The soft familiar voice was becoming firmer, closer to him. Apparently he had fallen down the steep side of the mountain and was now on his way towards consciousness again.

"Peter, wake up." He heard Olivia whisper the words to him as she ran her hand up and down his arm gently. "It's okay Peter. It's just a dream."

He was still shaking, shivering as the chills racked his body over and over again. He could feel Olivia's arms wrap around his body, holding him against her own. At any other time he would have wanted it, loved it even, but right now he wanted nothing more than for her to let him go. He wanted her to let go of his body so that he could curl up under the covers and just disappear. He just wanted it to stop. Olivia's voice was soft and caring as she continued to whisper soothing words in his ear, waiting for him to calm down. After a little while Peter felt the panic start to subside, his breathing rate came back down and he felt his body start to settle down as his muscles relaxed. Olivia did not let go of him, nor did she stop stroking his back, and it felt better. His skin was not burning anymore.

"You okay?" Olivia whispered so quietly that he barely heard it, almost as if she had not even wanted him to hear her.

_Do I look okay? _He wanted to snap at her, tell her that nothing was okay. He wanted to tell her that he was scared. That he was terrified because he had no idea what was happening to him, with him. The panic receded like a wave and left him in a sticky pit of doubt, not relief. His body had stopped shaking. The grey t-shirt he had decided to wear to bed was now soaked through, clinging to every ounce of skin on his upper body. A wave mixed with both physical and psychic weakness hit him, and he curled inward on himself, ignoring the pinching feeling against his palms from where his short, yet sharp nails had dug into the skin not more than fifteen minutes ago.

Peter Bishop was not a weak man. He was not a man that easily got upset, he barely ever cried, which was a characteristic that he had almost certainly obtained sometime in his childhood. _A real man doesn't cry_. He vaguely remembered Walter telling him those exact words when he was just a small boy, crying because someone had broken his new toy. Peter could not remember what kind of toy it had been, or which one of his two fathers it had been. All he remembered was that he did not cry anymore after that, at least not when anyone could have seen him. And no one did. He was not weak. He was strong, confident even. Though, in this moment he could not remember the last time he had felt so weak. Too embarrassed to admit that he was scared, terrified, even to the woman he loved and trusted more than the equation one plus one equals 2.

Olivia was still beside him, stroking the damp skin on his back and neck, occasionally running her fingers through his hair, something he loved at any time. He loved it when she massaged his head, gently running her sharp nails along his scalp from time to time as they cuddled on the couch in front of the television. She always seemed to know exactly which amount of pressure to use, depending on how much tension he had buried in the back of his mind. If he had a headache, her fingertips were the only parts of her small hands that touched him, no pressure, simply drawing soothing circles on his throbbing temples. Sometimes though, her grasp was anything but soothing, particularly during their late night activities. She pulled at his hair roughly, making him wince from her painful grip, but he liked it. He loved it even.

"Peter, please talk to me." Olivia whispered, and he could hear the desperation in her voice, almost pleading for him to open up and let her know what was happening. He couldn't.

A few very long, soundless seconds passed until their mobiles started ringing almost simultaneously, interrupting nothing and everything. Peter did not even open his eyes. He heard Olivia let out a sigh as she rolled over and left the bed to retrieve her buzzing phone. From the way she talked, he knew it was Broyles and they had a new case. A case meant he had to deal with not only his own problems, but other people's as well, and as much as he loved the whole FBI consult work he did, today was a really bad day.

"Peter…" Olivia said once again after she had put down her phone on the small nightstand beside the bed.

"I'll get ready." He said then, his voice hoarse and filled with something he could not decide what it was. Embarrassment, fear or frustration was his best guess.

"You don't have to-" He heard her say before he got up and went to the bathroom, not looking up at her because he knew he could not handle seeing the look on her face right now. He could not stand to see her face, her beautiful eyes that were filled with so much hurt and confusion, knowing he was the reason she felt that way. It was not his fault, at least not all of it. The part where he dreamed that no one knew him, not even Olivia, was not his fault. He knew that. The second part however, when she woke him up from his nightmares, calmed him down during his anxiety attacks and then tried to talk to him only to be completely shut out, was entirely his fault. And he knew that too.

* * *

><p>Olivia was angry. She was beyond frustrated. She was confused, but most of all she was hurt. Peter had been having nightmares nearly every night for almost a week now. He'd had three anxiety or panic attacks. She was not entirely sure which of the latter it was, just that they were bad, really bad. It killed her to see him, <em>feel <em>him trembling as she tried to calm him down the best that she could. It usually worked well and he calmed down after a few minutes. Then when she tried to get him to talk to her, so that she could help him, he simply told her that he was okay. Olivia knew he was lying. _I'm fine _was her line, her untruthful words. It was two words that she used often, most likely _too _often.

"So where are we going?" Peter asked as they drove through the streets in central Boston.

"Central Village." Olivia answered somewhat coldly; clearly still a bit angry at him for his behavior earlier.

"Olivia." He said with a small sigh.

"I know that you're scared but you can't continue-" Olivia said.

"I'm not scared." Peter told her.

"Then why won't you talk to me about it?" She asked him slowly. "I don't know what to do Peter. You won't talk to me about it and you won't let me tell Walter. I have no idea what's happening to you and it's scaring me. I feel helpless because I don't know what to do."

"Olivia I-" He started to say, but stopped when he realized that he did not know what to answer her anymore.

"Stop acting like such a proud idiot for once." She snapped at him as she parked the car.

"Can you just drop it? _I'm _the one who's dreaming, _I'm _the one that wakes up in a cold sweat shaking like a freak, _and I'm _the one this shit is happening to, _not you_!" He told her rather harshly, regretting what he had said immediately as he saw her wince, the flash of pain in her eyes before she turned her head away. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"No you're right. It's none of my business." Olivia told him angrily before she got out of the car, leaving him alone. He watched her walk over to Lincoln before he let out a sigh and left the car.

Olivia walked in through the front door to the apartment, trying to find Broyles for an update on what it is they are dealing with this time. Lincoln was standing in the hallway, questioning one of the persons living in the apartment building. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Peter enter the building, Walter and Astrid following close behind. She knew he had not meant what he said, at least not the way he said it, but it had still hurt. He was the one that who was dreaming and not her, but that did not mean that she was not affected by it or that she was not a part of it. They were in in together, not alone to deal with it their way, by themselves. They were together now, in a committed relationship, and that meant that his problems were also hers now.

"Sir." Olivia said as she found Broyles in one of the rooms.

"Agent Dunham." He greeted firmly, nodding. "Looks the there was a fire with no apparent cause. The damage just happened in an instant."

"Like a flash fire?" Olivia asked as she looked at him.

"Except there were not flames. But that's not the weirdest part." He told her. "According to the mother, her daughter regressed four years in age when the incident occurred, then back again."

"How is that possible?" Olivia said, not really asking because she already knew that Broyles had no idea either.

"I was hoping that Doctor Bishop might have the answer to that question." He answered. "Agent Lee is currently speaking to the fire marshal. Is agent Farnsworth and the Bishops here yet?"

"Yes, they're in here somewhere." Olivia replied with a nod.

"Good." He told her. "Keep me updated."

"Yes, sir." Olivia said as he left the room and headed for the exit.

As Olivia entered the burn damaged hallway once again, she spotted Peter in one of the rooms a short distance from where she stood. He was crouched down on the floor, speaking to the mother and daughter of the house. Olivia watched as he handed the small child a stuffed animal, a small grey elephant to be precise, and said something to the mother. Almost as if he sensed that she was staring at him, he turned his head around. He looked better than he did before. He did not look as tired and worn out as he had only an hour ago. After a few seconds he got up from his crouching position on the floor. He turned around and walked over to her, his hands buried in the pockets on his jacket.

"Hey." He said as he stopped in front of her. "What did Broyles say?"

"That there has been a fire but they haven't been able to find anything that caused it." She explained to him. "Apparently the damage just happened in an instant."

"Flash fire?" Peter suggested.

"That's what I said." Olivia said with a small smile. "But no, that's not what caused it because there were no flames. And there's something else."

"What?" He asked as he looked at her.

"That small girl you just met, apparently she went back to being an infant during the incident, then back again." Olivia told him.

"There really isn't a point where things just can't get weirder, is there?" Peter said as he looked over at the small child briefly before he turned his gaze toward Olivia again. She however, was clearly avoiding looking at him.

"I'm sorry about before." Peter continued as he looked down at her.

"It's fine Peter." She said simply.

"No Olivia, it's not fine." He said with a sigh. "I'm the one who's having these dreams and it's me that this is happening to, but that doesn't mean I get to shut you out."

"Peter, it's okay. I get it." Olivia answered.

"No. We're in a relationship. I don't get to treat you the way I have been." He told her. "I'm terrified because I have no idea what's happening to me. But you've done nothing but trying to help me this past week, and I know that. I'm sorry for what I said."

"I know you didn't mean it. It's okay Peter." She assured him. "Look, I know you don't want to talk to Walter about this, but I think you have to tell him."

"Olivia." He said with a small sigh.

"Peter I can't do this anymore." She said, her voice cracking slightly at the last words. "I can't watch you like that anymore, I just can't."

"Okay, okay." He said softly as he placed his hands on her upper arms. "I'll talk to him. I promise. Though it may be harder than it sounds."

"Why?" She asked with a frown.

"He's avoiding me because we didn't tell him that we we're back together until last week." Peter told her. "He hasn't said a word to me in five days."

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me." Olivia said with an amused smile.

"When it comes to Walter, nothing surprises me anymore." Peter said as he leaned forward and gave her a soft kiss, not caring about the other agents in the building.

"Come on, let's go find Lincoln." Olivia said as she turned around.

"Lincoln Lee, always ruining the moment." Peter mumbled as he followed her. "Come on, let's just head out to the car and have some fun."

"Shut up." Olivia said as she looked back at him briefly.

They found Lincoln in the kitchen, or at least what used to be the kitchen in the apartment, talking to one of the fire men who had arrived shortly after the incident had occurred. He was writing something down on his small notepad as they entered the burn damaged room just as the fire man left.

"So, the fire marshal says they've never seen anything like it." He told them. "Some areas burned, next to places that are completely undamaged."

"The outside wall had scorch marks that made a perfect circle." Peter said as he remembered the wall he had seen right before he entered the building earlier. "Almost like the fire burned in a shape of a ball."

"The fire marshal said that there was another fire here four years ago." Lincoln said as he looked down at his small notepad.

"Well that fits with what the woman was saying about her daughter becoming an infant." Olivia pointed out as she looked at them.

"So…we're thinking what? That this whole place flashed back to four years ago?" Lincoln asked slowly.

"Maybe." Olivia said. "Let's find Walter, get back to the lab and see what he can tell us."

"I'll stay here and see what I can do in the meantime." Lincoln told them with a nod.

* * *

><p>Peter stood in the center of Walter's lab at Harvard, his arms stretched out as Walter performed a brief physical examination of him. His father was still refusing to talk to him, even after he had told him why they had not told him about them being back as a couple. <em>We wanted to wait until we were sure that it would stay this way this time before we told anyone<em>, he had told his father when he had asked why they had waited two weeks until they told him.

When Olivia had told him about what was happening to Peter, Walter had stopped abruptly and looked over at her with a worried look. It had only taken a few seconds for him to start gathering different meters and equipments so that he could examine Peter, though he still refused to talk to him.

"The subject can lower the arms." Walter said as he stepped away from Peter.

"Walter." Peter said as he rolled his eyes at his father's behavior.

"The subject does not have any signs of a physical illness, nor does it have any trace of chemicals." Walter informed them firmly as he walked away. "I'll be in the office, working on the…problem. I do not wish to be disturbed."

"Walter, come on." Peter said with a frustrated sigh.

"Peter, just leave it." Olivia said from where she was seated at one of the tables. "Maybe you should've told him about us right away. You knew that he'd found out sooner or later anyway."

"Yeah, but I would've hoped that it had been later." Peter said as he walked up to where she sat. "Even after what you just told him, about the dreams and so, he _still _refuses to talk to me."

"Well, he talks to me." Olivia said with a small smirk.

"That's because he loves you more than me." He told her with a grin. "I don't blame him though; you're very lovable."

"Yeah?" Olivia said as she looked up at him.

"Yes, you are." He confirmed as he leaned down and gave her a soft kiss.

"I love you too Peter." Olivia told him slowly. She knew that he knew it, but she still felt the need to tell him.

"I know." He said as he moved his lips to the spot right under her ear then back to her lips again. "I'm very lovable as well."

Peter continued to pepper kisses all over her face, her lips, her cheeks, her temples and a few on the soft skin on her neck. His left hand was locked with her right one, resting comfortably on her knee as they kissed softly. Olivia was just about to reach up and place her free hand in his hair when she heard movement coming from the entrance to the lab.

"Am I interrupting something?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> So...should I be hiding behind the couch in case you throw like..rocks or tomatoes on me for not updating in 2 months?

I know it's been way too long since this was last updated.  
>I have had like...ten or 15 testsquizzes in schoold during these past weeks so I haven't had a single minute left over for this.  
>But now it's all over, finally summer!<p>

And also, this chapter is split in two 'cause otherwise you'd have to wait until early next week for this update.  
>Anyway, hope that someone is still reading and thanks for all the reviews on all the chapters!<p>

xx Bex


	12. And Those We've Left Behind Part II

"_Am I interrupting something?"_

At the sound of Lincoln's familiar voice Olivia quickly pulled her lips back from Peter's and turned her gaze to where her partner stood, eyebrows raised and an amused smile placed on his lips as he looked at the pair in front of him. Olivia pursed her lips and gave him a small grin of both amusement and embarrassment of being caught in the middle of their light make out session. Peter on the other hand looked more irritated than embarrassed about the interruption as he let out a frustrated sigh and looked over at him.

"Yeah, you are." Peter mumbled, not loud enough for Lincoln to hear, though Olivia definitely heard him because she squeezed his hand so hard that it made him wince. Olivia may look small and harmless but she was very strong, and she knew that as well as Peter did. Instead of saying anything else, Peter just took a step back from where Olivia sat, still holding onto her hand.

"No, it's fine." Olivia told him as she looked at her colleague. "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing really. Broyles just wanted me to drop off some files from the crime scene." Lincoln explained as he handed her a stack of files to go through. "By the way, what time tomorrow night?"

"What do you mean?" Peter asked with slight frown.

"The dinner at your house tomorrow night?" Lincoln said slowly as he looked at Peter, who just looked back at him with a clueless face.

"What dinner?" Olivia asked as she turned her head towards Peter.

"My words exactly." Peter said. "Lincoln, what are you talking about?"

"Well, your father invited Astrid and me to dinner at your house tomorrow night, something about celebrating." Lincoln explained. "He told me to bring beer and wine…You didn't know anything about this?"

"No…No this is all Walter." Peter told him.

"Does that mean I don't have to go buy beer tonight?" Lincoln asked him.

"No." Olivia told him as she looked at them. "Let Walter have his dinner to celebrate whatever it is that he wants to celebrate."

"_You_ want to go to a dinner party?" Peter asked amusedly.

"You don't have to sound _so_ shocked." Olivia said as she looked up at him. "Come on Peter, it might be fun."

"Fine." Peter agreed, both because Olivia wanted to and a part of him actually felt like it would be fun to get together with the whole team for once. "Lincoln, come by around seven or something. But you better bring that beer."

"Okay then." Lincoln said with a grin before he left again, leaving the files on one of the tables.

Peter sighed loudly as he turned around to look at Olivia who was still seated on the chair at the counter, looking at him with a small smile etched on her lips.

"Did I just agree to let my father organize a dinner party?" He said, more as a statement than a question.

"You did." Olivia said as she nodded slowly. "Look at the bright side. If there's alcohol and we're gonna drink, I'll have to sleep over."

"Oh, _now_ I get it." He said with a smirk. "You're gonna use this as an excuse to get me drunk and defenseless so you can get lucky."

"You wish." Olivia said as she slapped his arm lightly, or well, somewhat lightly.

"No, no I get it." Peter said as he continued to tease her. "I can't blame you. Who wouldn't want this?"

"You're an idiot." Olivia said as she grinned at him.

"And you're kind of cute when you're frustrated." He said as he stepped closer and gave her a quick peck on the lips.

"As much as I am enjoying your _sweet_ words, if we don't get back to work Broyles will probably fire me." Olivia said as she looked up at him.

"Fine, what do you want me to do?" Peter asked as he handed her the files Lincoln had left for them.

"Well, you can start by helping me understand the notes Walter made." Olivia told him. "They're written in 'Walter-language' and math so…"

"Right, but we need Walter's old notes on wormholes if I'm gonna be able to do this without his help." Peter told her as he grabbed the see-through whiteboard to write on. "He keeps them in the bathroom."

"I'll get them." Olivia said as she stood up and quickly got the old, dusty books from the cabinet under the sink in the small bathroom. The books were filled with information that Walter and William Bell had gained throughout the years they had worked together in the Harvard lab, at least that was what Walter had told them when Peter had found the pile amongst other things in the old car.

Peter had started to read them the same day as he had found them. He had spent the entire evening and half the night on the couch, reading page after page with endless mathematical equations and theories about negative energy, until Olivia had forced him to come to bed and sleep. She had tried to read the first few pages with him, though she had soon realized that more than half of the words being used in the text were words she had never heard before in her life.

"So you think this has something to do with time travel?" Olivia asked as she walked back into the room.

"No, not exactly." Peter said as he started writing things down on the whiteboard in front of him. "I think it has something to do with time displacement."

"And that means?" Olivia asked slowly, not really following what he meant.

"I think that something has disturbed or damaged the space-time continuum which then led to the rules becoming somewhat…unreliable." Peter tried to explain as easily as he could whilst continuing to write on the whiteboard. "I don't know what could have caused it though. That's more Walter's area of expertise."

"If the rules somehow have become unreliable, could that explain why the daughter reverted to a baby but the mother didn't?" Olivia asked as she followed the pencil in his hand as it moved across the board.

"Yeah, precisely." Peter told her as he looked over at her briefly. "I can't explain it yet but as far as I can tell, these anomalies are just going to keep on increasing exponentially. And if we can judge anything by the damage done by that fire in the apartment, these things are just going to keep on getting worse."

Olivia continued to watch as Peter scribbled all over the board, occasionally helping him when she actually understood what he was saying. He was drawing science far too advanced for her to understand everything. The equations were written with different signs that she had never even seen before in her life, but she was fine with it. In fact, she was glad that he could do the math for a while and then explain it to her in a way that someone without an IQ like Einstein could understand. Though, she had to admit that sometimes she secretly envied the abilities he had to so easily understand everything. Well, not _everything. _There were certain times where he could be pretty dumb. _A very dumb smart guy._

"This is not working." Peter said as he let out a frustrated sigh and started to cross over the things he had written down. "I've got too many competing theories. I- I can't balance the equation…There's too many variables and not enough constants."

"Look at this instead then." Olivia said as she motioned for him to come over. "There have been 65 time slips in the past 72 hours, all of which occurred within a forty-mile radius of Downtown Boston."

"And because most people don't call in déjà vu to the FBI, we can assume that there are at least twice as many unreported." Peter said as he looked at the computer screen over her shoulder. "Is it already 5 p.m.?"

"Yeah why?" Olivia said as she turned her head slightly upwards to look at him.

"No reason." He said with a shrug. "Just didn't realize that I worked on that formula for two hours."

"You wanna head home?" Olivia asked and turned around fully in the chair, placing her hands around his waist as she looked up at him with a smile. "Order in some good chinese food and rent a movie?"

"I would love to, but I told Lincoln we'd go out for a few drinks." Peter said slowly, regretting he decision that he had not told her earlier. "But I'll tell him we can go another day."

"No, it's fine." Olivia said with a genuine smile, though Peter could see the slight disappointment in her eyes.

"You wanna come with then?" He asked slowly as he cocked his head to the side and smiled. "Lincoln won't mind."

"You know, I'm a bit tired. I'll just stay on the couch and watch some TV or something." She told him. "Peter, I'll be fine. Go, have fun."

"You sure?" He said with a smile.

"Yes." Olivia confirmed with a nod. "Just don't get _too _drunk, 'cause then I won't let you anywhere near my bed when you get home."

"Agreed." Peter said with a grin as he leaned down and gave her a soft kiss. "I should probably get Walter home soon though."

"Okay." Olivia said with a nod. "I'm just going to finish this up and then I'll head home."

"Don't wait up for me." Peter said as he kissed her quickly before leaving the lab in search of Walter.

* * *

><p>Forty-five minutes later, after Walter had been dropped off at home with a cheeseburger and box of fries from Burger King, Peter was sitting on one of the uncomfortable stools at the end of the bar, a refilled glass of scotch in his hand. The bar was relatively empty, with the exception of a few lonely people at the tables, though it was only around six p.m. so he was not surprised. In approximately two hours, the bar would be packed with people getting wasted. The small bar was about a ten minute walk from the Harvard college campus, which meant this was one of the places where college students went after their classes were over for the day. It was cheap, but it was also the bar that served the best scotch in Boston.<p>

Lincoln had arrived fifteen minutes after he had, ordered a glass of scotch for himself and then ha had sat down on the empty barstool next to Peter, who was already on his third glass. They had talked about work for a few minutes, going over different theories on what could have happened at the apartment, and then Lincoln had asked if he had talked to Walter about the dinner he was planning for the next night. However, the topic of the conversation had slowly moved on to how things were going in their personal lives, particularly Peter's. He was not entirely sure why he had told Lincoln about the nightmares. Maybe it was the three glasses of alcohol he had consumed within the last hour, or it could simply be because he needed to get it off his chest. He needed to tell someone, someone that was not Olivia or Walter. He needed to talk to someone that understood his reasons for not wanting to share his fears and how embarrassed he was about it.

Peter and Lincoln had become very good friends during the months that Lincoln had worked with them in the division. Even though Lincoln had been a cop, or crime investigator, for the most part of his life and Peter had been a criminal for almost his entire life, they actually had a lot in common. Neither one of them had a mother anymore, at least not in this universe. They had been in one of the bars in town, watching the Boston Red Sox crush the New York Yankees in the finale, and Peter had explained to him about what had happened to him and his family when he was younger. The fatal illness that both boys had contracted, the cold night when Walter had crossed over to the Other side to take him and the toll it had taken on his _mother _to keep that secret for all those years, until one day when she couldn't anymore. A slightly intoxicated Peter Bishop had talked about the one thing he never, _ever,_ said a word about to anyone.

Olivia knew the whole story, of course. She had been the first one that he had talked to about it. It had been one day when they were sitting in one the office in the lab. Walter had been acting strange for a few weeks back then, and at the time Peter had thought it was because he had wanted to talk to him about how his mother, the one on this side, had died. He had explained to Olivia that he had been in Europe when Walter had called him from St. Claire's. _He told me that she died in a car crash. It wasn't a car crash. My mother committed suicide. That was the only time I spoke to him in the seventeen years that he was locked up in St. Claire's. _Those were the exact words he had said to her that day. It had been hard to say it, mostly because he did not like to talk about himself or his feelings back then. But he had trusted Olivia. He knew that he could talk to her. That he always could.

Peter had been surprised when Lincoln had admitted that he knew what it was like to grow up without a mother. He had told him about how his mother had gotten diagnosed with cancer when he was nine. There was nothing the doctors could have done. It had been too late. He had said that after his mother's death, his father had taken him and his younger brother and moved to Philadelphia to start his own business. He had only moved up to Connecticut a few years back to start working for the FBI in Hartford.

Peter considered Olivia, Walter and Astrid as his family. Maybe even Broyles at some times. He had only known Lincoln for a few months, but even so, he was slowly becoming part of the little family unit they had going in the lab. He was a good guy. That was why Peter had opened up to him tonight and told him what was happening to him.

"Is it always the same dream?" Lincoln asked as he took a sip from the bottle of beer he had ordered after finishing his scotch.

"No." Peter said quietly as he swirled the golden liquid round and round in the glass, staring at the small vortex that formed in the middle of the fluid. "No. It's never the same."

"Have you told anyone else?" Lincoln asked as he looked at him, his eye brows forming a slightly worried frown. "Your father?"

"Yeah, he knows." Peter admitted as he finished his drink and motioned for the bartender, Ian, who owned the bar, for a refill.

"Okay." Lincoln said slowly. "And what does he think?"

"He's not speaking to me 'cause I didn't tell him about Olivia and me." Peter told him, nodding as Ian poured another glass for him. "But I don't think he knows what's happening either. Hell, I don't even know. I mean, there's nothing really _wrong _with me. It's just _dreams_."

"And the anxiety attacks?" Lincoln reminded him as he looked at over him. He was worried. Peter was basically his closest, and only, friend at the moment and he was worried about him.

"Yeah right, don't forget the part when I wake up, shaking and scared out of my mind that everything's gone." Peter said sarcastically, his voice low and quiet.

"So how's Olivia doing with all of it?" Lincoln asked after a few minutes of silence.

"She's freaked out. She tries to hide it, but I know she's scared too." Peter told him. "She is helping more than she knows. More than I _let _her know. You know, every morning when I wake up, she's there."

"I'm scared because I don't understand any of this, that it's not gonna stop." Peter continued slowly as he brought his drink up to his lips and tilted the glass back, letting feeling the burning sensation from the top of his tongue all the way down his throat. "But the thing I'm most afraid of is that I'll hurt her."

"What?" Lincoln said as he looked over at him with a slight frown, not really understanding what he meant.

"What do you think?" Peter said sharply. "I have no control when it happens. If I hurt her…"

"You won't." Lincoln tried to assure him, but they were just comforting words, not a promise. "Have you ever seen the movie '_The Incredible Hulk'_?"

"About a radiation-poisoned man who turns into a giant green monster when he gets mad?" Peter said as he looked over at him briefly. "Yeah, who hasn't? And what's that got to do with anything?"

"Well, you said that you have no control when it happens, and you're scared that you'll hurt her when it happens." Lincoln said, the corners of his lips twitching with amusement.

"Are you seriously comparing my problems with a superhero-character from Marvel Comics?" Peter asked him.

"Yes, actually I am." Lincoln told him. "My point is that your _problems_ are pretty bad, but they would be _worse_. You could have been alone in this, but you're not. You have Olivia. And you have the rest of us. Just…it could be worse than this Peter."

By now, the bar was packed. There was loud music coming from the speakers sitting in the upper corners of every wall. People from everywhere were either getting together, getting rejected or getting lucky. Then, of course, there were those who were simply there to get drunk. Ian and two of the other younger guys, who worked in the bar, were trying to keep up with all the orders of drinks, peanuts and fries that people made. That was the life of a bartender, on a really busy night. Peter knew that very well, considering he had spent a few weeks bartending in Europe when he was younger.

Peter had left the bar around nine; just after the two attractive women that had come up to them earlier had offered to buy them drinks. Both of them had been absolutely gorgeous, more likely in their late twenties or early thirties. One was wearing a short white dress that matched her tan skin and showed off her legs perfectly. She had long, blond curly hair that bounced around her face as she walked through the bar.

The woman by her side had been a different type of beauty. She had been slightly shorter but the shiny, black heels made up for that. Her dress was looser at the bottom, flowing close around her legs, though it sat much tighter on her upper body, showing off her slim waist and chest. Her hair was the exact opposite to her friend's, brown and completely straight.

They had both been really attractive and _very interested_. At first, they had just stood next to them in the bar, talking lightly about stuff that not really mattered. Lincoln had been more than happy to indulge in their little flirtatious conversation. Peter on the other hand, had barely even heard what they were saying. He could see them out of the corner of his eye as they threw their heads back whenever Lincoln said something. The brunette had clearly been enjoying the company Lincoln had provided, whilst the blonde woman had tried to get Peter's attention to no avail. Sure she had been really beautiful, but he was not attracted to her at all. There was no part of him that had wanted to talk to her. There was only one woman that he was attracted to, only one woman that he would ever be interested in.

After a while the blonde had given up on trying to get him to engage in some kind of conversation instead of simply answering to the meaningless questions she had asked him, including what his favorite food and color was. Lincoln and the brunette had still been talking, even flirting a little bit, when the blonde had tried a new technique to get Peter interested. The way she had placed her hand on his wrist and tilted her head to the side seductively, made it clear what she wanted. It had not been until her hand landed on his thigh that Peter decided it was enough. He had removed her hand and told her that his girlfriend was an FBI agent, before he paid the bartender for his drinks and then he had left the bar. He realized that the woman had probably been somewhat mad that he had not stopped her earlier, but at that moment Peter did not care at all. He just wanted to go home to Olivia.

So that is exactly what he did.

* * *

><p>Olivia's apartment, which was more like <em>their <em>apartment now since Peter had practically moved in there after their 'relationship reunion' as Olivia called it, was dark when he opened the door. Peter quietly removed his shoes and the thin brown jacket he had on before making his way into the kitchen, being careful not to make too much noise in case Olivia would wake up. He knew she needed the sleep. He was not the only one who got sleep deprived because of the nightmares. Olivia had a tendency to develop a severe case of insomnia whenever they worked a difficult case or if there was something on her mind that bothered her. She would be awake for disturbing amounts of hours in a row, staying up all night with tons of paperwork until she literally dropped. Peter could count on one hand the times he had found her sleeping on the couch, completely drained of energy.

Peter switched on the lights in the kitchen when he crossed the threshold and went over to the sink to get a glass of cold water. Despite the fresh air and the long walk home from the bar, his head was still a bit foggy from the amount of alcohol he had consumed in the bar along with Lincoln, long before the two women had appeared. He could not remember how many glasses of scotch and bourbon he'd had, or how many bottles of beer he'd had. He usually did not drink to get completely wasted, or drunk for that matter. That was rarely his goal. He simply wanted to feel numb and to escape his mind for a while. That was something both he and Olivia did, sometimes together, sometimes alone.

After he had snuck into the bathroom as quietly as he could, brushed his teeth and gone to the toilet, Peter walked back out to the bedroom where Olivia was laying in the bed. She was lying in the center of the bed, her head buried in the soft pillow that he usually used, with the covers drawn up to her chin. Peter slowly pulled back the covers on the other side and lay down behind her, trying his best not to move too much. He propped himself up on his elbow and gently pushed away the blonde hair that was covering her face, and to his surprise, he was met with her green eyes looking back at him in the dark.

"Hey." He whispered as he stroked her cheek gently.

"Hi." Olivia said softly as she looked at him. "You're home."

"I am." He confirmed quietly, leaning down to press his lips against hers in a soft kiss.

"Did you have fun?" She asked slowly as he pulled back.

"No, not really." He admitted as he looked down at her. "I drank…_a lot_, we talked and then drank some more."

"Didn't I tell you notto come to bed if you were drunk?" Olivia teased with a smile.

"I'm _not_ drunk." He told her, a small grin spreading on his face as she raised her eye brows at him. "Okay, maybe a little. But in my defense, I really needed to drink tonight."

"I know." Olivia said quietly as she traced the MIT-logo on his shirt with the tip of her finger.

"How about you, what did you do tonight?" Peter asked as he tucked a few strands of her blonde hair behind her ear and stroked her cheek softly.

"I went for a jog in the park and watched a movie." Olivia told him. "And don't worry, I ate the leftovers from last night."

"Good. You need some meat on your bones." Peter grinned as he ran his hand up and down her arm slowly. "I told Lincoln."

"About the nightmares?" Olivia asked tentatively, reaching up to run her fingers through the brown curls on his head as he nodded slowly. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I think so." He said sincerely. "But I don't want to talk about that anymore."

"Okay." Olivia answered as she rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes.

"A woman flirted with me in the bar tonight." Peter admitted after a few minutes of silence. He watched as Olivia turned her head upwards to look at him, both uncertainty and amusement evident in her eyes as she waited for him to continue. "Lincoln was flirting with her friend so she tried to get my attention for a while."

"Did she?" Olivia asked as she looked at him.

"Not exactly. I mean, I answered her lame questions but that's about it." Peter admitted. "She had lousy pick up lines."

"Or you were just too drunk to understand what she wanted." Olivia said with a small grin, clearly enjoying teasing him. "Not that I'm complaining."

"Believe me when I tell you that I knew what she wanted. I spent several months in seedy bars all over Europe after I left, just drinking and picking up girls." Peter told her quietly, somewhat unsure of how she would react to his confession.

"It's okay, you don't have to explain." Olivia as she placed her back on his chest, grasping his hand in her small one. "I know you wouldn't do anything. I trust you, Peter."

"I know. I will never do anything like that to you, Olivia." He said as he placed a soft kiss on her forehead.

"She did place her hand on my thigh though." Peter whispered as he pressed his lips against the smooth skin right under her ear.

"And what did you do?" Olivia said quietly, tilting her head slightly to the side to give him better access to her neck.

"Grabbed her ass." He mumbled seriously, but she felt his lips curl into a smile against the skin on her neck where he had buried his face at the moment. "Don't worry, I told her that my girlfriend is a very sexy FBI agent who carries a gun."

"Hmm…good." Olivia answered, grinning to herself at the fact that he had just said the word girlfriend out loud to her for maybe the first time since their breakup.

"There's only one hand I want on my…thigh." Peter breathed against her ear, his warm breath making goose bumps spread over her skin as he dragged his lips over hers, slowly and barely touching.

"This one?" Olivia breathed against his lips as she wrapped her left hand around his neck and ran it through his hair. "Or this one?" She continued as her right hand trailed down his chest and stomach before moving further down over his sweatpants.

"Definitely the second one." Peter told her, his voice low and strained from the effort of trying to maintain his control. He shifted under the covers and pressed his body harder against her hers at the same time as Olivia pulled his lips back down to press against hers in a deep, ecstasy inducing kiss.

* * *

><p>To say that Walter had gone a bit overboard with his organized dinner party was an understatement.<p>

Olivia and Astrid had arrived just after seven, a few minutes too late according to Walter, and they had been amazed as soon as they had entered the hall. The house was sparkling clean, every floor and furniture surface shining in the light coming from the vanilla scented candles positioned in the living room. There was a strong mouthwatering scent flowing through the air in the house that came from the kitchen and the food Walter was cooking. Neither Olivia nor Astrid had any idea what it was that Walter had been preparing the entire afternoon, nor did they know _why _or _what _it was they were celebrating this night. Peter knew but he had refused to tell them anything when they had asked him, even when Olivia had tried.

While Astrid went to see whether Walter needed any help with the food or anything else, Olivia removed her jacket and went into the dim lit living room.

"Agent Dunham!" Walter exclaimed happily as he approached her, nicely dressed and a big smile on his face. "Here's a drink for you."

"Thank you Walter." Olivia said with a smile as she took the cocktail-similar drink in her hands. "Do you know where Peter is?"

"Oh, he's just taking a shower, dear." Walter told her as he turned around and went back towards the kitchen. "I'm sure he would not mind if you joined him."

Olivia simply shook her head in amusement as she watched the old man walk away, leaving her alone in the living room as she waited. As she looked around, Olivia spotted a small picture frame on the shelf above the open fireplace and picked it up. The picture was of her and Peter, a close-up of them as they slept. Olivia was nestled into his chest and Peter's arm was wrapped loosely around her midsection. It was a beautiful picture; they looked peaceful and just so _normal_. In that picture they were just a normal couple without having to worry about the world ending on their watch within the next hours.

"Do you like it?" A soft voice said from behind her, and Olivia turned around to find Peter standing a few meters away from her.

Olivia was about to say something but paused as she looked up from the picture in her hand and focused her gaze on the sight of her boyfriend before her. Peter was leaning against the doorframe, wearing a simple white shirt and faded blue jeans that served only to improve his already dreamy appearance and his trademark smile.

His short brown hair was still damp from the shower he had just taken, making his curls more noticeable than usual. And because it was the beginning of August and the sun was shining almost every day, he had just the perfect golden tan that looked really good along with the white shirt. At that moment, Olivia could not think of a time where she had ever seen him look that incredible

"I love it." She answered after a few more seconds of staring. "Did Walter take it?"

"Yeah, he did." Peter confirmed as he took the last few steps until he was standing right next to her, both of them admiring the picture in Olivia's hands. "I don't know exactly when, but it was sometime before…everything happened."

"And he kept it all those months?" Olivia said quietly as she ran her finger across his face on the photograph.

"No, I did." Peter admitted slowly, honestly, as she placed the frame back on the shelf.

"Thank you." Olivia said as she wrapped her free arm around his waist and leaned her head against his chest.

"For what?" He asked as he looked down at her, a curious smile playing on his lips.

"Not giving up on us…, on me." She told him simply, but they both knew that those words were not anywhere close to easy to say or let alone think about. Peter did not answer to her statement, he just pressed a tender kiss on her forehead before pulling back slightly.

"Did you drink any of that?" He asked as he nodded to the cocktail she had in her other hand.

"No, why?" Olivia asked as she looked up at him.

"The first rule when it comes to Walter is to never eat or drink things he hands you, unless you've actually seen him make it." Peter pointed out with a knowing smile. "You do remember the time when he put marijuana in the brownies he'd made for my birthday, right?"

"Yes, but I don't think Walter would…" Olivia said but stopped when she realized that yes, Walter would do that without a second thought.

"Yeah, he would." Peter said as he grinned at her, reaching out to take her untouched drink and place it on the table just as it knocked on the door.

"Peter! Open the door!" Walter shouted from the kitchen, making him roll his eyes as he went to open the door to find none other than Lincoln standing on the doorstep.

Peter was certainly not the only one who looked good this evening. Lincoln had definitely done a fine job with his own appearance, a white shirt and a black jacket, almost like his work outfit but without the tie. His typically straight, combed hair was a tad messy, like he had run his hand through it in frustration or just to try on a new look for himself. Olivia could not help but to think that he actually looked more like the _other _Lincoln Lee, the one she used to work with, than the one she _does _work with. Either way, he looked very good.

"Hey, come on in." Peter greeted as Lincoln stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

"I brought beer." Lincoln told him as he held up a six-pack with beer bottles in his hand and a bottle of red wine in the other that he handed to Olivia. "It's vintage."

"Thank you." She said with a smile.

"Don't worry, honey, you can have some of my beer as well." Peter teased as he nudged her shoulder lightly.

They made their way to the table where Astrid had helped Walter set out the food, plates and glasses, candles and a whole lot of other decorations. There was a large plate with several steaks and a beef fillet, a bowl with potatoes and one with a salad.

"This looks amazing, Walter." Olivia commented as they sat down at the table, the others nodding in agreement.

"Thank you, dear." Walter said happily as he sat down at the end of the table. "It is all for you and my son."

"What?" Peter said as he looked at him, briefly glancing over at Olivia who looked as confused as he did.

"I knew that you two would eventually find your way back to each other's hearts, and that is what we are celebrating today, son." Walter said sincerely, like it was not a big deal at all. He did not realize how much it meant to his son that he had done all this just to show how happy he was for them.

To Peter, the one sentence speech his father had made, the unexpected statement about his happiness for their relationship, almost made his eyes water. Though his father occasionally had a tendency to make Peter want to move to the other side of the world, perhaps even another world, or just simply admit him to the nearest mental institution, he had a heart of pure gold and Walter Bishop, from this world, was the best father he had ever had. Not that he could remember the first few years of his life that he spent with his real father, but still, this was his father and his real home.

Four hours later, around half past ten, both Lincoln and Astrid had left after dinner, dessert and a lot of conversation involving the time chamber slash time travel case they had solved and what the man had done to have more time with his ill wife.

Everyone had truly enjoyed the small get together Walter had made for them. Maybe they would even do it again.

"You wanna go to bed?" Peter said quietly as he and Olivia lay wrapped together in a blanket on the couch a while later. Walter had refused to let them help him with the dishes and had ushered them to the couch and TV instead.

"No, I'm good here." Olivia told him as she lifted her head from his chest and looked at him, her chin resting against his sternum.

"You look like you're gonna fall asleep any second." Peter said with a grin as he pulled his hand out from under the blanket where it lay nestled around Olivia's waist, and moved it to tuck a strand of her tousled hair behind her ear.

"I'm not." She whispered as she stretched her neck and gave him a soft, lingering kiss.

"Sure, whatever you say." He said as he ran his hand up and down her arm gently. "You looked really beautiful tonight."

"You weren't so bad yourself." Olivia told him as she reached up and placed her hand on his freshly shaven jaw, her thumb rubbing against his cheek gently. "I love you."

"I love you too." Peter said without doubt, his eyes closing as she stroked his cheek tenderly. "More than you'll ever know."

"Want to go upstairs and show me?" Olivia whispered as she placed her chin back on his sternum, waiting.

"I do." He told her quietly as he held onto her tighter and stood up with Olivia in his arms, the soft blanket hanging loosely over her body before it slipped down to the floor as he started walking towards the stairs.

_I'll give you everything you want…except the thing that you want…you are the first one of your kind…_

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN:<strong> I am so so sorry for not updating this for such a long time.  
>Summer is taking up all my time...<br>As usual, __I wanted to thank you for the reviews on the last chapter and hope you'll like this one as well. (:  
>If so, please let me know cos' it does mean a lot to hear. (:<em>


	13. Somewhere Only We Know

It had been three weeks since the dinner, or celebration party for the team as Walter had insisted they would call it, at the Bishop residence, and the weeks had gone by rather slow, mostly because there had been no new case after the one concerning time travel, or more accurate, a time chamber made by a grieving husband. Usually there would be a large pile of paperwork after each solved case. Crime scene photos that had to be reviewed, documents about every tiny detail that had to be written and read, and of course, it all had to be organized and handed in to Broyles as quickly as possible. And with Olivia being the overachiever and nocturnal human being as she is, the reports would be handed in the next morning nearly every time.

Peter had no problems staying up late at night, quite the contrary, in fact, he enjoyed it. He was not that fond of doing the paperwork during the late hours, but, going out for a few drinks with Lincoln or Olivia, or both, occasionally spend the night with Walter and a game of Monopoly, or simply unwind on the couch, wrapped under a blanket along with Olivia, were the things he enjoyed the most. And whilst Olivia could go to bed way after midnight and still wake up at six in the morning with no problem, which he often disliked somewhat, he was more similar to a dead person than a living breathing one in the morning, at least if the time was somewhere before ten AM. Olivia used to tease him about it, telling him how she could not believe that anyone his age could sleep consecutively for as many hours as he usually did, which was more often than not way beyond 11 in the morning, several hours after Olivia had left the bed for her daily cup of morning coffee.

When they had first started spending the night together, either in her apartment or the house he shared with Walter at the time, Olivia would carefully, to avoid waking him, get out of bed and take a shower or now and then go for a jog whilst he just buried his head under the mountain of soft Olivia-scented pillows, and slept. Then, after a few hours, he would stumble into the kitchen in his boxers and wrinkled shirt, his curly hair tousled from tossing and turning under the covers, rubbing his fists against his eyes to rid himself of the lingering tiredness. Olivia would always smile at him; occasionally tell him that he looked like a young boy who had just woken up, silently thinking that maybe one day there would in fact be a young boy stumbling into the kitchen early, or late, in the morning, looking just like Peter. She had never mentioned it to him at the time, still a bit unsure of what would happen between the two of them at that time, before everything they had shattered into a million or more pieces that needed to be repaired before they could begin to use it, before it could function properly again. But she knew that he wanted a child of his own, with his and hers genes combined to a new human being, made by the love between the two of them.

No matter how many times he had told her, assured her, promised her that he did not blame her for what happened with their unborn child on that Saturday night, she could not help but still feel responsible, guilty, like it was her or at least her body's fault somehow. Her body had rejected the fetus, their baby, and maybe it was because of some defect or maybe it just was not meant to happen. Walter had initially suspected that it could have been related to the Cortexiphan in her system, that it made her body protect itself and reject the mass of unidentified cells inside her body, but that thought had been dismissed after a simple blood test. The miscarriage had been normal, if you could ever call such an awful thing normal, but there had not been anything abnormal about it. And she knew. Deep inside she knew that no one blamed her for it, knew that she was not responsible, but in the rare moments when she looked into Peter's eyes as they talked about that event, she could not help feeling like she did when she saw the evident traces of incurable pain left behind for him to keep. Nevertheless he knew how she felt, what she felt, and they were working on it, on everything to get better.

Today was the August 6th, a quiet Saturday morning, and the warm summer sunrays were just on their way over the horizon, signaling the beginning of another bright and sunny day in the city of Boston. The summer months had been unusually warm, even now, in the first week of August, the temperature still remained steadily around 25 degrees Centigrade. Normally, Olivia was not that fond of the hot and dry weather that came with the summer season, but after having spent the most of her time off with Peter at their cabin near Reiden Lake, swimming in the lake and sleeping outside under the stars, her view had changed quite a lot.

Walter had been with them over the weekend, until he had decided to stay back at the lab for the rest of the week, and left them all to themselves over the following five days until they went back to Boston once again. Five days free from early wake up calls from Broyles, from meter high piles of paperwork, from Walter, practically disconnected from civilization altogether, voluntarily trapped in the middle of the woods. It had just the two of them, and no one else around for miles.

They had returned to the apartment late last night, after a two-hour drive from the lake house and a short trip to their closest grocery story, refilling their empty fridge with the most essential items, such as breakfast. And beer, of course.

And now, the next morning, Olivia sat in the kitchen, her cup of morning coffee hot in her hand and the Saturday morning newspaper in the other. The apartment was quiet, only the sounds from the rustling of the paper as she turned the page over and occasionally a soft groan from the bed, where Peter was still sleeping away peacefully, could be heard. This, as she had told Peter before, was her favorite time of the day, sunrise. _This is my favorite time of day. Sunrise. When the world is full of promise, _she'd told him that morning earlier this year, just at the beginning of their relationship. She had never had the time then to tell him exactly what she meant by it before both their cellphones rang, but she knew he understood, knew that he did know what she had meant.

She heard the moment he woke up, groaning slightly as he stretched, something he always did, and then the rustling sound of the covers being removed as he got up and left the bed. He appeared, and stopped in the doorway to the kitchen. Olivia smiled at the sight of him, wearing only a pair of dark blue boxers as he leaned against the doorframe tiredly, still not fully awake.

"Hey." Olivia said softly, smiling as she looked at him. "You don't have to get up yet, it's only five thirty."

"I thought I'd go see Walter before we leave." He answered, taking a few steps forward to stand behind her and wrap his arms around her waist. "How 'bout you? What are you doing up already?"

"Couldn't sleep." Olivia said with a small shrug, letting her head fall back against his firm chest, closing her eyes and breathing, appreciating the comfortable position he provided. He rested his chin on her shoulder, his morning stubble tickling, almost scratching the sensitive skin on her neck. She felt him smile then, his cheek moving slightly against hers.

"The pills are working." He told her quietly, pressing a soft kiss to her cheek.

The night of the dinner party, three weeks ago, had been the last dream filled night that Peter had had. It had also been the first night, since the incident in the lab and his time in the hospital, he and Olivia spent the night there. They had been there for a few evenings, cooking and spending time with Walter, but after that they always drove back to the apartment as Walter went to bed. Having consumed a fair amount of alcohol during that evening, neither of them had been able to drive them back home, nor to consider calling for a cab in the middle of the night when they had their own bed in Walter's house as well. Consequently, they stayed over.

Peter had dreamt that night, as bad as every other night, and Walter had heard, and then seen as he entered their bedroom, how bad it really got. It was bad, the shaking from not being able to get air down and into his lungs, the dizziness and the nausea, and the unconcealed fear in his eyes as he opened them and looked up at the person who woke him up, but it was almost worse to watch and not be able to do anything. It was what had driven Walter to spend the entire next day, and the two following days after that, inside the Harvard lab, trying to figure out a way to stop his son's horrifying night terrors. And he did. After hours of thinking, reading, comparing and mixing different substances, he had a preliminary treatment; a small white colored pill to take each night before he went to sleep, to be precise.

"I noticed." Olivia said softly, happily, as she grabbed one of his hands and pressed a soft kiss to the back of it. "You feel okay? No side effects, right?"

"No, not what I know." He told her with a small shook of his head. "I'll let you know if I go blind and start to experience hallucinations about pieces of strawberry cheesecake hovering over my bed like flying saucers."

"That's not funny." Olivia said quietly, tightening her hold on his arms, still bound around her waist. "Walter said you can't continue to take them for much longer, that the drugs are too strong."

"I know, I was there when he told me." Peter answered simply. "And I won't take any more after the bottle I have now is empty. Walter said its fine."

"Good." Olivia told him as she pressed another kiss to his hand, her lips lingering on his skin for a couple of seconds. "I just want you to be alright."

"I am. I feel good." He assured her, honestly, reassuringly as he started peppering kisses along the side of her neck and collarbone. Olivia let go of his hand and brought her hand up to his soft curls, as she tilted her head up to press her lips against his, heat spreading throughout her entire body as he kissed her back fervently. On instinct, or simply desire, Olivia slowly stood up and wrapped her left arm around his neck, keeping the other against his chest as she pressed her body against his. Peter's hands rested on her lower back, holding her close to his nearly naked body.

"Are you wearing anything under my shirt?" He whispered, his breath hot against her lips, as he slid his hands down and under the shirt, slowly sliding them back up her thighs. Then he stopped, placed his hands back at her hips, rested his forehead against hers and just breathed.

"What's wrong?" Olivia asked, surprised to see him grinning as she pulled back to look at him.

"God, as much as I want this, we don't have time." Peter told her as he looked at her, keeping his hands still on her hips. "We need to leave in two hours, and I have to shower and swing by Walter's first."

"Peter Bishop turning down morning sex to go see Walter? That's a first." Olivia teased, her eyebrows slightly raised in disbelief as she looked up at him.

"Okay, don't use the words 'Walter' and 'morning sex' in the same sentence ever again." He said, cringing as he shook his head and reluctantly let go of her body. "And yes, as a matter of fact I am."

"Alright, then I'll take a shower and pack our things while you're gone." Olivia told him, putting her now empty coffee mug in the dishwasher, leaning over further than necessary simply to tease him.

"Mhm." Peter mumbled, slightly unfocused on what she was telling him and more on what she was doing. "Liv, you can stop that, it's not gonna work."

"I know." She answered simply as she stood up, pressed a quick kiss to his lips, and then grabbed the hem of her, or in fact _his_ shirt, turned around and walked towards the bathroom, removing the piece of clothing on her way.

"I'll pick you up at eight." Peter told her, contemplating, as he watched her exposed form leave the kitchen without him in tow. Eventually he picked up the shirt from the floor, grinned as he put it on himself, and then went for a pair of pants before reluctantly leaving the apartment.

* * *

><p>Half an hour into their drive towards the Green Forest National Forest, a national forest located in Vermont, somewhere they often went for a couple of days each year to get away from their daily life, and they were in the middle of another long discussion about the 'importance of finding a new house', as Peter so nicely put it. He had first brought it up just a few weeks ago, trying, and failing, to nicely work it into simple conversation at the same time as eating pizza on the couch to a cheesy horror movie from the early 90's. Initially she had not believed that he was serious, instead she'd laughed and given him, almost nonchalantly, a quick 'sure, why not'. It was not that she did not want to, because she truly did want a place of their own, a place they could call <em>their <em>home, but she knew why he really wanted a house or apartment that was larger to the one she had now, and that was what made her doubt, what made her nervous.

She knew that he wanted to try again. She also knew how much time that particular subject was on his mind, how desperately he wanted to talk to her about it, discuss their options, their wishes and fears, their future together. He wanted to be father more than anything else in the entire world, maybe even worlds, and Olivia knew that, she just did not know what she wanted any longer, more than that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. He was the one she wanted to go through life with, through the good as well as the bad, and as long as he was by her side nothing else mattered, she would be happy, they would be happy together.

"Then how about this? Two stories, three bedrooms, newly renovated bathroom and kitchen, medium size garden and garage for two cars." Peter said, reading out loud from the 'house for sale' section in the morning paper they had brought with them.

"Why would we need a garage with place for two cars? You don't even have a car." Olivia pointed out as she pressed down on the accelerator, passing the car in front of them with ease.

"Well, I might buy one." Peter shrugged. "It's got a working fireplace in the living room."

"Why would you buy a car?" Olivia asked, looking over at him briefly. "We have a car."

"Maybe I want my own." He told her. "One that I actually get to drive from time to time."

"Oh, Peter c'mon." Olivia sighed, keeping her eyes on the road instead of turning to face him, knowing he was most likely looking out the window, something he often did whenever he was annoyed or angry, like now. "You drive this car as much as I do."

"I beg to differ." Peter answered sarcastically, turning in the seat to look at her. "I never get to drive this car, not when we're going to the lab, not to the crime scenes, not even when we drive home at night because it's _your_ car. And look, I know you like to have control and you have a hard time letting it go, and I'm fine with that. But sometimes it feels like it's all one-sided, and that I have no say in anything we say or do."

"You feel emasculated." Olivia said quietly, staring at the road in front of them with a slight frown on her face.

"A little bit, yes." He confessed. "Sometimes I do."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Olivia asked as she slowed the car to a stop and looked over at him, and Peter was surprised to find tears evident in her olive green eyes. "Why didn't-"

"Because it doesn't matter." He started to explain, but Olivia quickly cut him off.

"Of course it matters!" She exclaimed, running her hand through her hair. "Why didn't you tell me about it? I never wanted to make you feel like that. I'm sorry Peter, I'm so sorry."

"Honey, I'm not mad at you." He assured her as he grabbed her hands, holding them tightly in his. "I'm just being honest. Olivia I love you, and you didn't do anything wrong, okay?"

"Then why do you feel…?" Olivia trailed off, reaching up to wipe the lingering tears from her eyes.

"Because I'm the one who's supposed to be taking care of you." He told her, looking away. "I'm supposed to take care of _you_."

"What do you mean?" Olivia asked confusedly, until she realized what he was talking about. "The dreams?"

"Not the dreams." He said, shaking his head slowly. "The moment after them."

"Peter…" She whispered, not entirely sure of what to tell him. "You can't think like that. You've been taking care of me for over three years. It's my turn now."

"I love you, you know that right?" He told her as he leaned forward and pressed a tender kiss to her lips, his right hand against her cheek.

"I know. I love you too." Olivia said as she smiled at him before starting the car again and drove back out onto the road. "Though we still don't need another car."

Peter chuckled, smiling widely like only he could as he leaned back in his seat and put his head against the headrest, closing his eyes for a minute. He felt Olivia place her hand on his thigh, just above his left knee, and he brought his own hand down to hold hers as he let the darkness take him in.

Olivia felt the moment he fell asleep, his grip on her hand loosened, his breathing evened out and his head lolled to the side, resting against the passenger window. Without letting go of his hand she turned the car onto the highway, accelerating to get up to the accurate velocity.

* * *

><p>Two hours passed before Peter slowly woke up, groaning slightly as the bright light from the sun reached his eyes. He brought his hands up and rubbed his eyes and neck, trying to rid himself of the tiredness as well as the tenderness in his neck from having slept with his head angled to the side. Usually, he was not particularly fond of sleeping in the car, at least not in the front seat and certainly not without having Olivia settled up against him. They sometimes did that, slept in the car for a few hours when neither of them wanted to drive over night, or in some cases they were simply tired and still had a long way to go until they reached the city or town they were headed for. At those times he liked it, sleeping under a soft blanket on the narrow, yet comfortable backseat of the SUV, squeezed between Olivia and the leather cushions separating the backseat from the trunk. Sleeping alone in a car was not the least bit of fun. He had done enough of that during his years in Eastern Europe, as well as numerous other occasions when he had nowhere else to spend his nights.<p>

"Where are we?" He asked as he let out a slight yawn and looked out the window, searching for any kind of sign as to where they currently were.

"We just crossed the Vermont border a few minutes ago." Olivia told him. "You've been asleep for about 2 hours."

"Sorry. I guess I was still a bit tired from last night." He said with a smirk, remembering their nighttime activities from the night before. ""You should be too. I mean the way you-"

"Okay!" Olivia said sharply, and then glanced over at him, grinning.

"I'm just saying." He told her, raising his hands for a second, before he shifted in his seat and looked out the window. "Think we can pull over at the next rest area? I could really use a restroom right now."

"Can you wait a little longer?" Olivia asked as she glanced at him briefly. "I can't pull over here Peter."

"Mhm, it's fine." He said as he tried to think of something other than the pressure in his lower abdomen.

"So where do want to go when we get there?" Olivia continued, trying to distract him as they drove down the road. "The usual trail up to the top or down to the clearing? Because I was thinking that maybe we could just go somewhere else today, like down where we went the first time, you know, by the river? Or we could just walk straight into the woods and see where we end up."

"Sounds good to me." Peter answered.

"Which does? The river or the woods?" Olivia asked again as she looked over at him once more, her lips curved into an amused smile.

"There are less people in the woods than down by the river banks, even more so now when it's warm enough to swim in it." He said with a slight shrug. "Maybe we can find a quiet deserted field somewhere where we can-"

"Peter, not gonna happen." She told him, shaking her head, but still smiling.

"I was going to say a place where we can _talk, _but having dirty outdoors sex works too." He told her, smirking as he saw her blushing faintly.

"Shut up." Olivia said with a grin, keeping her eyes focused on the road instead of his face, knowing that if she did, he would give her that look, the smirk and the sparkling eyes he got when he had a bad idea in his mind, that he thought was in fact a good idea.

"What?" He said, feigning innocence. "I don't seem to remember that you had an issue with it during our last visit here. In fact, I have a vivid memory of you enjoying it very much. Though, considering it was with me, who wouldn't."

"You should be careful." Olivia told him. "If your ego gets any bigger, your head's going to explode, you know."

"Funny." He answered dryly, shifting slightly in his seat.

"You doing okay?" Olivia asked, noticing the way he repeatedly tapped his foot on the floor and shifted around in his seat.

"No, and unless you're into male desperation you have to pull over." He told her, one of his hands pressed lightly against his crotch. Olivia quickly slowed the car to a stop on the side of the road, and Peter was out of the car before it stopped entirely, already unbuckling and unzipping his jeans to relieve himself. Olivia almost laughed at the sight of him, standing with his hands down his front, head leaned back, eyes closed and his mouth open in relief. If the persons in the cars passing by would have been able to see him, if the car had not been blocking him from their view, some of them would most likely think he was doing something quite different from what he was indeed doing. Olivia only hoped that no police car, or any kind of car with officers of the law for that matter, would drive by at the moment, seeing as a ticket for indecent exposure was not something either of them needed.

"Feel better?" Olivia asked, trying desperately not to laugh as he got back in the car and they continued driving.

"Yeah." He answered as he buckled his seatbelt, glaring a little as he looked over at her. "What are you smiling about?"

"Nothing." Olivia said innocently, briefly meeting his eyes. "You just looked…so relieved, and… satisfied. That's all."

"Agent Dunham, has anyone ever told you that you have a very, very dirty mind?" He said, smirking at her.

"Oh, you haven't heard dirty yet, Peter." Olivia teased playfully. "And you're one to talk."

"Touché." He answered, smiling widely, as he leaned back in his seat. "Touché."

* * *

><p>They had been walking on a narrow trail through the trees and bushes for an hour or so, stopping occasionally for a few mouthfuls of water to stay hydrated under the burning sun, as well as a couple of minutes of resting whenever they found a place with some shade. Everything around them was green, the tree crowns and their branches, the small bushes below them, even the grass and moss they walked on was in different shades of green. The flowers were like hundreds of spots on the ground, all in different colors and shapes, making it all look like a magical forest together, almost like paradise, far away from the busy streets in the cities. Loud and sharp singing could be heard from the treetops, the birds happily letting everyone else, animals living as well as the humans who hiked through the old forest, how pleased and cheerful they were with their life.<p>

"Okay, let's stop for a bit." Peter said as he sat down on the grass, slightly out of breath. "Ugh. My shirt is soaked."

"So take it off." Olivia told him, shrugging as she grabbed one of the water bottles from her backpack. "It's not like you've got something to hide."

"You know how it works. Show me yours and I'll show you mine." Peter said with a grin, his eyes slowly moving down from her eyes to her chest, only covered by a grey tank top.

"Peter. My eyes are up here." Olivia said, her finger pointed upwards to her face as she looked down at him.

"I know. I wasn't looking at your eyes." He teased, raising his eyebrows before he closed his eyes and lay back in the grass. "I think I'd be happy to lay here for the rest of my life."

Olivia smiled as she watched her boyfriend lying in the grass, resting his head on one of his arms and the other one on his stomach. She took a last gulp of water before placing the bottle back in her rucksack, put her head up in a messy bun and got down to lay in the soft grass beside him, placing her head right next to his shoulder.

"Rachel called this morning." She told him after a few minutes of silence, not even sure that he had not fallen asleep beside her.

"Yeah? How is she?" He asked.

"She was freaking out." Olivia told him quietly, contemplating on whether to tell him what she and Rachel had talked about. "She was late."

"For what?" Peter asked, not understanding what she had meant by the term 'late'.

"Not that kind of late, Peter." She answered, turning her head slightly to look at him.

"What do you-." He stopped as he realized what she was talking about. "Oh."

"Yeah." She said, her mind racing with thoughts about both her sister's supposed pregnancy, but also the fact that she knew that there was another conversation that they eventually needed to have; the same topic, only it was about them and not her sister. "If she is, Greg's the father."

"I thought she divorced that guy?" Peter asked with a frown as he looked at her.

"She did." Olivia told him, her lips forming a thin line. "That didn't stop us when we were broken up."

"True." He answered slowly as he looked up towards the sky, both of them silent again, thinking.

"She asked me…" Olivia started, stopped, and then tried again. "She asked me if I would ever want to try again. Try to get pregnant again."

Olivia heard his breathing as it stopped, she heard as it started again a second later, and she heard the sharp intake of breath as he took in what she had said. It was a conversation that both of them had avoided for as long as they could, afraid of what the answer and the outcome would be after it. If they wanted different things, how would they react, how would they agree on a decision, and how would they cope with it?

"Okay." Peter said, not sure of what else to say at the time.

"I told her that I didn't know." Olivia admitted slowly, keeping her eyes closed as she curled her body slightly towards his, but still not touching.

"Olivia, we don't have to talk about this if you're not ready to." He told her softly, knowing that she was struggling to even mention this to him. "It's okay."

"It's not okay." Olivia exclaimed as she sat up and looked at him. "How can it be okay? I know you want to talk about it."

"I do." He said honestly, as he too sat up. "But not if you're not ready for it, you know that."

"I am." Olivia said firmly, trying to reassure both him as well as herself that she really was.

"Okay." Peter said calmly, nodding slowly.

"If I didn't want to try again, you would resent me." Olivia said quietly, looking everywhere but his face, his eyes.

"No Olivia." He said as he shook his head.

"You would Peter." She told him, tears forming in her eyes. "Because I know that you want to be a father. You'd be an amazing father."

"Olivia." He started to say, but she quickly cut him off.

"Because I'll do it." She told him as the tears started to run down her cheeks. "I don't want to lose you."

"Hey, hey. Olivia." Peter said as he pulled her against him, trying to comfort her. "I would never resent you, do you hear me?"

"But Peter, if I didn't-." She started, tears still rolling down her face as she pulled back slightly.

"I would still love you." He promised as he placed his thumb under her chin and tilted her face up to look at him. "I want a child with you more than anything. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I want you to be happy, because I love you. And_ if_ you don't want to try again, I understand that and it's okay. No matter what happens, whatever you decide that you want, I would never think less of you. I love you, Olivia."

"Even if I'd say no?" She asked, meeting his eyes.

"Even then." He promised as he pressed his lips to her forehead, then her cheek and lastly, her lips. "You're not getting rid of me that easily."

"Good." Olivia said, smiling softly as she wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. "Ugh, I can't stop crying."

"I noticed." He said with a smile as he stood up, reached out to take her hand and pulled her up from the ground. "Here, have some more water so you don't dehydrate from it."

"Shut up." Olivia said as she slapped his arm, reaching for her backpack.

"You have to stop hitting me. I'm running out of excuses to cover all the bruises I get." He told her, feigning hurt as he rubbed his arm.

"You're one to talk." Olivia said as adjusted the bag on her back.

"I never hit you." Peter said with a frown.

"No, but you give me bruises like every other day." She told him as they started walking down the trail once again.

"Ah, you mean _those_ kinds of bruises." He said with a smirk, nudging her shoulder as they walked side by side. "Sorry, but I'm not going to stop giving you those, honey."

"Figured." Olivia responded, before she stopped and listened.

"What?" Peter asked as he stopped as well.

"Shh, listen." She told him quickly, smiling. "Do you hear that?"

"No?" He said, not hearing anything other than the slight breeze and the birds in the trees.

"Stay here." She told him, grinning, as she dropped her backpack and quickly made her way towards the sound of water she had heard. She went through the thick grove of bushes, disappearing from his sight. Though what she found on the other side was amazing, and she did not wait a minute before removing her jeans and tank top.

"Olivia, what are you doing?" Peter said loudly as he watched her disappear into the green bushes. He sighed, picked up her bag and went after her, stopping when he heard the water and found her clothes on the ground in front of him. He stood on a stone cliff and in front of him was a short waterfall, leading down to a small lake only a few meters below him.

"Liv?" He said as he looked around, his concern rising somewhat when she did not answer. Maybe she had tried to jump, and then hit her head on something. Maybe the water had not been deep enough.

"Down here." She replied and Peter took a few steps closer to the edge, looked down and saw her on her way up from the water and to where he was standing, clad in only her bra and panties.

"Don't do that again." He said as he shook his head and grabbed her hand to help her up to the top. "You scared me."

"Does that mean you're not getting in the water?" She asked, grinning, and completely ignoring his words. "It's actually really nice."

"God, yes." He said as he quickly removed his sweat soaked shirt. "Is it deep enough to jump?"

"Yes, it's a few meters deep." She informed him as she watched him remove his jeans and socks.

"Okay, let's go." Peter said excitedly as they moved over to the edge.

He barely had time to stop and look down before Olivia had grabbed his hand and almost pulled him with her as she jumped. They hit the warm water simultaneously, went under the surface and then came up, breathless and smiling from the high dose of adrenalin that had started to pump out through their veins from the high jump.

"This is amazing." Peter said as he shook his head, his hair curling even more from the water.

"I told you so." Olivia said playfully as she went under and swam over to him, right beneath the surface, smiling as she came up right in front of him. "Hi."

"Hey." He said as he leaned forward and kissed her, placing his hands on her hips to keep her from swimming away. "Do you want to know something?"

"What?" She asked, her heart rate going up as she felt his hands wrap around her waist, his breath tickling the wet skin on her neck and cheek as he whispered in her ear.

"You have never looked sexier than you do right now." He whispered, taking her earlobe in his mouth, gently holding it between his teeth, sucking softly before proceeding to kiss down her neck as she tilted her head back.

"Peter." Olivia said, breathing heavily, almost moaning as she felt one of his hands move up from her waist to her chest, caressing her skin under the surface. Both her arms were wrapped around his neck as she placed one of her legs around his thigh, practically on pure instinct, signaling for him to continue.

"I thought you said no dirty outdoor sex?" He said huskily, more as a statement than a question, as he pulled back from her neck to kiss her lips instead.

"I changed my mind." Olivia breathed against his lips before she sealed them with her own.

_And if you have a minute why don't we go...__Talk about it somewhere only we know?_

* * *

><p>AN: I can't apologize enough for the long delay on this chapter, and story.<br>I have been so busy for the last couple of months, since I moved to Spain and lived/ went to school there for four months.  
>It was an amazing experience, and I miss it soooo much, but now I am back in Sweden and ready to continue with this story again.<br>Isn't that great? At least I think so, and I hope that some of you will still read it.

This chapter is also dedicated to my best friend and my English teacher I had in Spain,  
>because they made me continue this work.<p>

Thank you!

R


	14. Invincible

With grocery bags in both hands, Peter strolled down the street to their apartment, greeting the people that he met along the way with a 'hi', a friendly smile or just a simple nod their way. Even if it was summer and only eight thirty in the morning there were a fair amount of people out already. Some were walking their dogs, some getting freshly baked bread from the small bakery a few blocks down and a few were simply taking a morning walk, enjoying the fresh and humid morning air that Massachusetts offered this time of year.

_Stood up on the side of the earth_  
><em>Thrown back to the track to the dirt<em>  
><em>Two thread lose an hour a day<em>  
><em>We're miles adrift, we're inches away...<em>

He was almost certain that the loud music from his headphones could be heard from several feet away, considering the volume was nearly turned up as high as his phone allowed him to. The lyrics from the song were stuck, burned into his mind after having listened to it over and over for more than a week now. He blamed his girlfriend for it though, since she had been the one to introduce the electronic, yet rock based song to him. Olivia had insisted that they watch the second film based on the X-Files franchise, I Want to Believe, last weekend as they ordered take away and had their weekly movie night. They ordinarily watched some silly action movie or a cheesy horror, perhaps even an old sappy romance once in a while. Of course, sometimes they did rent movies that were actually worth the money and time they spent on the couch, when there were _other_ things that they could be doing instead that, according to Peter, were far more important and a much better way of passing time than lying half asleep on a narrow old couch.

It was only a few minutes before he had walked up the steps leading to the apartment and fished up his keys from his pocket, balancing both bags and his phone in one hand as he turned the key in the lock and stepped inside. As he shrugged off his shoes by the door, he noticed Olivia lying on the couch, wrapped in one of the wool blankets. She had been in bed, sleeping soundly, when he left the place no more than half an hour ago_. Guess she woke up and moved over to the couch instead_, he figured as he walked over to the kitchen and placed the paper bags on the counter, before he made his way over to her.

"Liv?" He whispered as he crouched down beside her, reaching out to push a few strands of hair from her face.

"Peter?" She asked quietly, almost soundlessly as she opened her eyes to some extent.

"You ok?" He asked as he pressed a hand to her forehead, checking for a fever, pleased when he did not find her temperature higher than normal.

"My head hurts." Olivia whispered after a few seconds, closing her eyes. "Migraine, I think."

"Have you taken anything?" Peter asked sympathetically, slowly stroking her cheek with the back of his hand.

"No." She answered, her voice muffled by the blanket.

"I'll get you some aspirin." He told her softly. "Need anything else?"

"No, I'm good." Olivia told him as she heard him start to move, his knees popping loudly as he stood up and made his way through the bedroom toward the small bathroom. She heard him open the cabinet above the sink, the sound that, if you opened the door slowly, sounded almost like the screeching sound made by fingernails running down an old chalkboard. Peter had told her more than a few times that he was going to fix it, tomorrow, on his next day off or maybe next weekend, she had heard them all. He was typically the 'say it as well as do it' kind of guy, and most often did the things that needed to be done, though for some reason he had not gotten around to fix this yet. It had taken Olivia quite a while to come to terms with the fact that she did not have try to repair the broken pipes under the kitchen sink, the nonfunctioning television or the smoking engine on her car, by herself anymore.

"Here, two aspirin and a glass of water." Peter said as he resumed his crouching position in front of her, two small pills held out in his palm as he helped her sit up on the couch.

"Thank you." Olivia said as she tossed the pills back and slowly brought the glass to her lips, tilted, and let the cold liquid bring the pills down her throat like fish following the stream.

"Do you want me to call Broyles?" Peter asked as he looked down at his wristwatch, noticing that they had to leave in only a few minutes. "Tell him that you'll stay home?"

"No." She told him with a shook of her head. "No, I'll go in. Just give me a few minutes."

"Okay." Peter answered, knowing she would not change her mind.

Fifteen minutes later they were on their way, laughing and joking and chatting away as Peter drove the large SUV through the streets of Boston. Olivia was not sure who had started the 'what do we really know about each other after all this time' game, but they had been playing since they left the driveway.

"How can I not know your middle name?" Peter said as he looked over at her briefly. "I've known you for over four years now. It's unacceptable."

"You never asked." Olivia shrugged, amused by his behavior.

"Well, I know your birthday. October 21st." He said, smiling proudly, like it was something to actually be proud about after four years of friendship.

"At least you know that much." Olivia laughed as she looked at him. "And yours is September 18th."

"It is. I'm glad we know those at least." He joked, stopping at a red light. "It might be helpful sometime in the future, you know, when one of us has a birthday."

"You're right." Olivia told him, thinking of anything else to tell him. "Okay, I don't think you know this. I wasn't due until mid-November."

"You were premature?" Peter asked, somewhat surprised.

"Yeah, I was fine though, just a little small…four pounds." Olivia said with a smile, remembering a moment from when she was younger and sat on the couch with her mother, looking through photos from when she and Rachel were younger. "Why, how big were you?"

"How much did I weigh?" Peter asked as he looked over.

"Yeah." She nodded.

"I think I was almost 8 pounds." Peter said with a shrug.

"That's a joke, right? You're joking?" Olivia asked as she looked over at him, chocked by his revelation.

"No. Why?" He replied, a slight frown above his eyes.

"Can you really come back from that? My God…" Olivia said, still trying to fathom the idea.

"Well, think about it this way, if we have a kid it will almost certainly be just the perfect weight." Peter pointed out, smiling.

"True." She agreed, nodding slowly.

"So when did you lose your virginity?" Peter asked casually, his lips curved up into a grin.

"Peter!" Olivia exclaimed, laughing at his innocent yet curious look.

"What?" He asked simply. "We should know these things about each other. You know, the "ex-files" and all that."

"'Ex-files'? Seriously?" Olivia said with raised eye brows.

"Fine, I'll go first then." Peter told her as he turned right and slowed the car down in front of the caution tape at the crime scene. "I was sixteen, there was a beach party, she was a senior in my high school and I'd just gotten my license and a car with a nice backseat…and, well, I think you know the rest."

"Backseat of your car? That's such a cliché." Olivia said, grinning as she unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car.

"You're one to talk." He said as he came up beside her. "The car's like your favorite place to-"

"That is _not _true." Olivia protested as they walked toward the building where Astrid and Lincoln were waiting for them.

"You keep telling yourself that, honey." Peter said, simply smirking at the glare she gave him. "So when did you, you know, lose your cherry or whatever?"

"I am not going to answer that." She told him, shaking her head.

"Oh, come on." He pressed on, nudging her shoulder as they walked. "I told you."

"I never asked you to tell me." Olivia answered, smiling as she walked up the steps, where she was met by both Lincoln and Astrid. "Hey, what do we got?"

"Victim's name is Jack Zoephel. At approximately three A.M., his wife placed a call to 9-1-1 after talking to her husband, who believed that he was being followed home. His wife was still on the phone with him when he was attacked, and the police arrived less than two minutes after she called them. But when they got here, he was already dead." Lincoln told them as they entered the building, Peter and Astrid following close behind.

"I'm assuming he didn't look like this before he left his work for the night?" Astrid pointed out as they looked at the pale and white-haired body on the lobby floor.

"No." Lincoln replied.

"Walter is certainly going to love this." Peter said to no one in particular as he crouched down beside Astrid and studied the corpse a little closer.

"What did the officers say about it?" Olivia asked Lincoln, nodding at the two officers who stood outside the apartment building.

"They didn't see anything, but they said that they did _feel _something." Lincoln told her slowly.

"What do mean?" Olivia asked, looking at him with frown. "What did they feel?"

"They were not too happy to explain it, or maybe they were embarrassed, but they described it as some sort of ghost." Lincoln explained.

"Are you saying a ghost did this?" Astrid asked as she stood up beside them.

"No." Lincoln told her, holding out a plastic bag with a piece of bloody bandage in it. "We've already ruled that out, since ghosts don't tend to bleed."

"Then let's talk to the neighbors and see if anyone heard or saw anything last night, and then we'll take the body back to the lab." Olivia told them, already heading for the doors.

* * *

><p>"There have been four bodies similar to this one found in the surrounding area over the past three weeks. And why is this the first we're hearing of it?" Olivia asked as she looked over the files Broyles had sent them, Peter and Lincoln doing the same while Astrid helped Walter with the autopsy.<p>

"It says here that before they ran the medical records, the police just assumed that all the victims were suffering from albinism." Peter told her. "It's more common than people think."

"Any luck with the DNA?" Olivia asked as she looked over at Lincoln, who was currently typing away on the lab computer.

"I've checked all the law enforcement databases, including Interpol, but it's possible that this person's DNA is not in any criminal database." Lincoln answered with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

"Hospitals?" Olivia questioned.

"That's my next move." Lincoln told her, nodding, as he continued typing on the computer.

"Walter, you got anything yet?" Peter asked as he dropped the files and went over to where his father was standing, eyes pressed against his microscope.

"Yes, chromatophore cells." Walter told him as he angled the scope to Peter. "You mostly find them in chameleons. They're cells that have the ability to translocate pigment in the body, and it is what many creatures use to blend into their background, just like chameleons."

"Okay, we've just got an I.D. on the blood sample I ran through the hospital database." Lincoln informed them from his position at Astrid's usual workstation.

"A name?" Olivia asked as she walked over.

"Baby Boy Bryant, a baby born on June 6, 1986 in New York." Lincoln explained. "According to this he died a week later."

"So we're saying that the blood we found on the crime scene belongs to an infant who died 26 years ago?" Astrid asked skeptically.

"Maybe he is a ghost after all." Walter said, munching on a piece of red licorice.

"Does is say what happened to him?" Peter asked.

"He died from complications from a genetic abnormality." Lincoln read as he scrolled down the pages. "Jeffrey West, the doctor who delivered him also wrote the infant's medical journal. And it says that he was deathly pale, the lights burned his skin as they held him up which made the doctors put him in some sort of special ward with no windows or lights. It doesn't say anything about his death though."

"Surprising." Olivia commented sarcastically. "Does it say anything about what happened after his death, with his body?"

"It was taken to a private insurance company." Lincoln told her, squinting as he tried to read the next words. "The handwriting is really bad, I think it says something Colies…or maybe Cyrpol…"

"Cyprox?" Walter mumbled, starting to connect the pieces of information.

"Yeah, that could be it." Lincoln answered with a nod.

"How'd you know Cyprox?" Olivia asked as she, as well as the others, looked over at Walter, who still stood by the half-finished autopsied body, chewing on his colorful licorice.

"Cyprox was a subsidiary of a larger company called Kelvin Genetics." Walter informed them, his face now taking on a stern and slightly concerned expression.

"And why does that give me a bad feeling?" Lincoln asked, half kidding.

"Because Kelvin Genetics became Massive Dynamic." Peter answered before Walter could.

"And that means we have to talk to Nina Sharp." Olivia said, already reaching for her leather jacket.

* * *

><p>"How could they do that?" Olivia said angrily as she and Peter walked toward their car after their interview with Nina only minutes earlier. "How could they do genetic experimentation on a dying infant?"<p>

"It's what made him survive though." Peter pointed out as they neared the car.

"And you think that makes it okay?" Olivia asked as she stopped and looked at him, her eyes staring straight into his.

"No, of course not." He answered quickly. "I'm just saying that that child would have died had he not been part of that experimental program."

"Maybe that would have been better." Olivia told him, and he knew this was not only about the baby infant anymore. This was about her childhood, the experiments done on her as a small child.

"Maybe." He said slowly, taking a few steps closer to her. "But in your case no, and yes I know that's what's on your mind too. I know you still think that you're different, but it's not a bad thing. It's what has made you who you are, and I would never want you to be any other way than you are."

"So you're saying it's good that your father pumped my body full of drugs for months?" Olivia asked, a small smile forming on her lips.

"No." He said as he cocked his head to the side, smiling softly before pulling her against him in a comforting hug. "It means I love you for who you are."

"Who would've thought that you were such a sap?" Olivia joked as she pulled back slightly, still keeping her arms around his waist, resting her hands on his back.

"I am not a sap." He said, feigning hurt. "It's called being a loving boyfriend."

"Is there a difference?" Olivia teased, smiling as she looked up at him.

"Maybe not." He answered, shrugging before placing a tender kiss to her lips. "Come on, let's go back to the lab and see if Walter has found anything else on the autopsy."

It was only about ten minutes later that they walked hand in hand down the corridors, along with several students who still had classes in the building, until they reached the doors that lead into the basement lab. As they entered, they spotted Walter and Astrid in the center of the room, discussing something while leaning over a small aquarium with something Olivia couldn't distinguish what it was.

"Oh! Peter, Agent Dunham!" Walter exclaimed happily as he looked up, a wide spreading on his face. "I have certain things to tell you about the chameleon man."

"Chameleon man? Really Walter?" Peter shook his head and sat down on one of the stools close by.

"Yes, and unfortunately, he is dying." Walter told them as he too sat down, but in front of a wooden maze at knee level.

"Who's dying?" Olivia asked as they all, including Lincoln who had just came out from the office, gathered around the scene.

"Our suspect of course." Walter answered as he slowly picked up a small white mouse from a glass box, and then carefully placed it down in the labyrinth. "I believe that he is killing people to try and take their pigments."

"Why?" Lincoln asked as he crossed his arms over his chest, glancing between Walter and the small white mouse running through the labyrinth on the table. "What is he trying to do to himself? Except for, you know… trying to re-pigmentize himself."

"Well, the condition that he was born with was evidently killing him." Walter explained, not removing his gaze from the running, searching mouse. "I believe that if he is now attempting to reverse what was done to him and therefore to make himself normal again. Or at least what he thinks of as normal…and then he is, in fact, committing suicide. "

"You're saying he's poisoning himself?" Astrid asked.

"Yes, somewhat." Walter continued as he leaned over the maze and picked up the mouse at the end-point of it. "His body is returning to the deadly state that he came into this world with. Although…I don't think he is aware of it."

"Then how long does he have until he dies?" Olivia asked as she, as well as her colleague, crossed her arms over her chest.

"I can't say." Walter told them. "But I suppose it depends on how successful he is."

"Well, that doesn't change anything." Peter pointed out. "We still have to find him."

"But how do we find something we can't see?" Lincoln asked them.

"Oh! That was another thing I had to tell you." Walter exclaimed as he clapped his hands and as the lights in the room dimmed, he grabbed a wand with ultraviolet light and moved it over the maze. "Come on, where are you?"

"Walter, what are you-" Peter started to ask, but stopped as another mouse suddenly appeared in one of the corners as the UV light shone over it.

"Has it been there the whole time?" Lincoln asked, stunned, before looking over at Astrid who had just answered the phone. "What's up?"

"That was Broyles." Astrid informed them. "Another body's been found."

* * *

><p>As they, Olivia and Peter and Lincoln and Astrid, walked through the parking structure toward where Broyles was waiting with the dead body, they watched as the search dogs were given the scent they needed to find the suspect. Even though their suspect was invincible, obviously he still smelled.<p>

"What do have?" Olivia asked as they reached Broyles.

"The doorman was just starting his shift when he found the body." He told them. "He has identified him as a Mr. Ryerson who works in the lower parts of the building."

"Do we know if the suspect is still in the building?" Lincoln asked as he looked around briefly.

"According to the doorman, no one has left." Broyles replied. "There is an emergency alarm on the back door, and he said that he was standing by the front door until the police arrived. Even watched the security footage three times to be sure."

Just as Olivia was about to ask something, one of the canine handlers called out to Broyles, signaling that one of the dogs had picked up a scent by one of the doors leading to the upper levels of the building.

"Are there any building exits on the floors?" Lincoln asked quickly.

"No." Broyles replied, and the four agents took off running as he ordered a complete lockdown on the building. "He's still up there."

* * *

><p>"We have to move fast." Olivia said as they reached the dark stairwell, each holding a UV flashlight in their hands. "Peter and Astrid, take one team down and clear the basement and the garage. We'll start on the highest floor and work our way down. You start here and we'll meet in the middle. Okay?"<p>

"You got it." Peter said, the others nodding with him as they went their separate ways.

Ten minutes and several floors later, Olivia and Lincoln opened a door to the next floor to search through for the suspect. It was an area under renovation, dark and filled with ladders, wooden boards and several kinds of tools. Lincoln held up his hand and pointed to the right, silently signaling that he would go left and she right to clear every surface of the floor. With an agreeing nod, they separated and quietly, carefully, walked around. The plastic hanging from the ceiling made the place look like something from a dark thriller or horror movie, where you just waited for the killer to come up behind you. Luckily, Olivia had never been afraid of horror movies, quite the opposite in fact. That did not mean that she would like for this suspect to come up behind her, seeing that she may not even be able to see him.

Suddenly there was a loud thud, the sound of a body hitting the floor kind of thud, coming from the direction where Lincoln had gone.

"Lincoln?" Olivia called quietly, but high enough for him to hear if he was there.

No answer.

Her heart was beating faster for every second that passed, thudding firmly against her ribcage as she quietly walked through the halls. She pointed the flashlight high up in front of her face as she tried to spot something, or someone.

So high up in front of her that she didn't see the large hole in the floor.

One second she was walking with both her feet on solid ground and the next she was hanging down a deep gaping hole, her elbows the only things holding her up and keeping her from falling. She could feel the edges digging into her upper arms as she tried to drag herself back up, unsuccessfully. Her leg hurt and she could feel the warm blood trickle down the side of her shin, down to the edge of her shoe. Her tactical radio and the UV flashlight were lying on the floor less than a meter away, though, reaching for them would make her loose the poor grip she already had on the flat surface. That did not stop the other agents, and Peter, from calling on her radio.

"Olivia, there's nothing down here." Peter's voice came through at the same time as she heard the movement behind her. "Olivia? Olivia, can you read me?"

She could see him. The ultraviolet light in her flashlight had worked, and now she could see their suspect approaching her. His skin was pale, almost white, and his eyes dark. He really did look like a ghost as he slowly walked towards her. But he did not look like a murderer, more like a man who had lost everything, even though he had never truly had anything at all.

"Please, help me." Olivia found herself pleading as she struggled to maintain her grip.

"Right now you understand how important it is to be seen." He said sharply as he looked down at her. "In this moment your life depends on it, depends on me seeing you."

"Okay, please, listen to me." Olivia said, trying to negotiate. "Listen, whatever it is you're doing to yourself, it's killing you. Please let me up, and we'll try to help you to-to heal you."

"Help me to heal?" He said bitterly. "You're just here to take me back to them so that they can run their tests and their experiments."

"No, no I am just trying to stop the killing." Olivia told him, her arms starting to get tired and ache from the effort of holding her up. "Please just hel-"

She did not get to finish her sentence before something struck the back of the man's head and he fell to the side, Lincoln standing behind him with his gun in his hand. He quickly fell down to his knees before her and helped her get up, and she noticed the small trail of blood trailing down the side of his face. Evidently he had been knocked out before, just as she had thought. She held onto his arms as he pulled her up to safety, hissing somewhat when her leg hit the edge. Their radios had not stopped calling and buzzing since she had fallen, and Peter's voice was frantic and rushed as he shouted.

"Liv! Please respond!" He called, and from the sound of it he was running. "Are you okay Please tell me where you are!"

"Peter, we're on the construction floor." Lincoln said as he picked up his radio. "Seventh from the top, I think."

"Is she okay?" Peter said quickly. "Did you find him?"

"Yes, he's right…" Lincoln started to answer, and then stopped when he turned to where the suspect had been lying only seconds before, but was now nowhere to be seen.

"Lincoln?" Peter said loudly. "What's going on? Is Olivia with you?"

"Yeah she's here." He told him, briefly looking at where Olivia sat next to him, before glancing around, not finding anything. "Bryant was here, but he's gone."

"Olivia? Lincoln?" Peter shouted as he reached their floor, the canine team following close behind him. "They're in here!"

"Did you see him?" Lincoln asked, referring to the fleeing suspect.

"No." He responded quickly as he crouched down beside Olivia, who was still seated on the floor, swallowing as he saw the hole in the floor. "What happened?"

"I was walking and it was dark, I didn't see the hole until I fell." Olivia told him honestly. "I'm fine Peter, it's nothing."

"I'll let the paramedics be the judges of that." He told her as he helped her up, keeping an arm under her right shoulder as they went for the door, Olivia hobbling slightly.

* * *

><p>An hour or so later Olivia sat in the passenger seat of their car as they drove towards her apartment after they'd dropped Lincoln off at the office. Broyles and the rest of the team had found the suspect, only half an hour after he had left the building, sitting with his back against an elevator wall, dead. The paramedics had cleaned the cut on her shin and put a small bandage over it. It was a pretty long cut, but not very deep, and the bruises were what hurt most.<p>

Lincoln had then offered to take care of the paperwork for the case, even after Olivia had protested and pointed out that he needed to rest after having been knocked out cold back at the scene. Lincoln had not, or Peter for that matter, let her stay at the office, and despite her protests Olivia was silently glad that she would get to go home instead. She just wanted to take a long, hot bath and then get under the cover in her bed and just sleep.

"You okay?" Peter asked as he heard Olivia let out a long sigh.

"Yeah." She answered softly. "Just tired. Exhausted actually."

"Let's just get home and eat something, a sandwich maybe, and then go to bed." Peter suggested as he grabbed her hand and rested them on her thigh.

"That sound good, but I want a hot bath before bed." Olivia told him, smiling as she squeezed his hand gently. "And a beer."

"That's sounds really good right now." Peter said with a small laugh. "Am I invited to the hot bath, though?"

"Get me a beer, give me a massage and I'll let you in anywhere." Olivia said as she leaned her head back and smirked at him.

"Okay then." He replied, grinning as they drove down the streets to their apartment.

_Chances are I'll see you  
>somewhere in my dreams tonight<br>You'll be smiling like the night we met_

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Hi again! I know it's been a while, and I truly am sorry for that!Have had other things to do, and never got around to continue with this.<em>**

**_Hope that you are still with me, and will continue to read!  
><em>**

**_Thank you all for the reviews and support, you guys really are amazing!_**


End file.
